🚀 go-pugleaf

TO:       All Forest Activists
FROM:     Steve Holmer & Jim Jontz
DATE:     July 3, 1996
 
SUBJECT:  Sec. Glickman Announces Changes to Salvage Sales
          Under the Rider
 
     Sec. of Agriculture Dan Glickman issued a directive July 2 to
Chief Jack Ward Thomas revising the rules for carrying out salvage
sales under the Clearcut logging rider saying, "While I believe the
(salvage) program has been successful - due to the dedication of
Forest Service employees - I do have some concerns, and members
of the public have expressed concerns about its implementation."  
 
The directive states: 
 
*    No salvage sales in inventoried roadless areas may go forward
     under the rider, except those that are "imminently susceptible
     to fire."   Priority should be given to sales that minimize new
     road construction.  
 
*    Each unit of a sale should have identifiable trees that are
     diseased, insect-infested, dead, damaged or "imminently
     susceptible" to attack.
 
*    Green sales that were retagged as salvage and withdrawn for
     environmental or other substantive reasons, may not go
     forward as a rider sale.
 
*    Defines "Associated trees" as trees that must be removed only
     as necessary to provide access, ensure safety, or to improve
     the forest stand conditions in the sale area.
 
*    The agency would have to include documentation estimating
     the volume and percent of dead versus green volume in each
     sale with a clear explanation and rationale for harvesting the
     green volume.  Any sale that is more than 25 percent green
     timber must be reviewed at a higher level within the agency.
 
     These new guidelines are not a substitute for restoring the
laws and do not address the many sales outside of roadless areas
that will still have adverse impacts on fisheries and water quality. 
The exemptions in Glickman's directives for roadless areas and sale
units "imminently susceptible to fire" will also invite abuse.  The
agency will still have too much discretion to carry out salvage sales
outside the law.  The guidelines are only temporary, not permanent
changes to the salvage program, that will only apply to sales under
Public Law 104-19, the Clearcut logging rider that have not been
offered.  For a copy of Glickman's directive, please contact Sean
Cosgrove, WAFC's National Organizer at 202/789-2844 ext. 294.