🚀 go-pugleaf

LOGGING WITHOUT LAWS BULLETIN #55 from WAFC, the Western Ancient
Forest Campaign.  Call (202)789-2844x291 or email WAFCDC@igc.apc.org
 
Friday, March 22, 1996, the 241st Day of Lawless Logging
 
EASY MONEY TURNED DOWN:  Conservationists blasted the
Foerst Service yesterday for its decision to reject a bid by the
Northwest Ecosystem Alliance to buy the Thunder Mountain sale. 
The reason given by the agency for rejecting the bid is the
announced intention of NWEA not to cut the trees, which are in
significant wildlife and roadless area on the Okanogan NF.  "The
Forest Service is trying to steal our Thunder," said Mitch Friedman
of NWEA.  We were offering a win-win solution, the but Forest
Service chose to give a sweetheart deal to a timber company,
regardless of the costs."  NWEA was the high bidder on the sale at
$28,875, but the Forest Service has already spent an estimated
$300,000 preparing the sale.  "The Thunder Mountain Sale is a
classic example of what is wrong with the federal salvage sale
program," said Friedman.  "Some forests, no matter whether the
trees are live or dead, cannot be responsibly logged without wasting
taxpayer dollars and degrading land and water."
 
TREES FALLING AT MILLENNIUM GROVE:  An effort to find
substitute volume to avoid cutting trees almost 1000 years old on
the Umpqua NF is moving forward through a last minute initiative
of the Agriculture Department in Washington, but Roseburg Forest
Products began cutting yesterday on the First and Last sales which
include the old trees.  A boring earlier this week identified a tree
980 years old in the sale unit.  Fifteen activists from Cascadia Forest
Defenders blocked a road to the sale site yesterday, but dispersed
into the woods when a large closure area was established by the
Forest Service.
 
BARKLEY APPEAL:  A letter from four California groups has
requested the Agriculture Department to stop the Barkley Salvage
sale under the "logging without laws" timber rider. "The Barkley
sale is opposed by countless scientists, conservation activists, some
members of the timber industry, the Quincy Library Group, and the
Deer Creek Watershed Conservancy," their letter says.  "We believe
the sale will disrupt old-growth ecosystems, do irreparable harm to
the primitive character of the Polk Springs Roadless Area,
undermine community consensus efforts such as the QLG, and
degrade anadramous fish habitat."
 
INJUNCTION IN MISSOURI: Judge Stephen Limbaugh has issued
an order preventing the Forest Service from selling or logging
timber from the Mark Twain NF involved with a suit by the Ozark
Chapter of the Sierra Club under the Timber Clearcut Rider.  Ken
Midkiff of the Ozark Chapter reports that the Justice Department
attorney told the Court that they could not properly respond to the
Sierra Club's arguments challenging the rider sales within 45 days,
the plaintiffs sought summary judgement, and the Court issued the
order.  And yes, Judge Limbaugh is related to Rush Limbaugh; they
are cousins, Midkiff says.
 
"FORGOTTEN FORESTS":  In a move to save the "forgotten
forests" and juniper lands of eastern Oregon and Washington,
environmental groups have filed a lawsuit to stop logging, road
construction and land exchanges in the old-growth forests on BLM
lands in this area, and stop juniper eradication projects on these
same forests.  "The BLM has been getting away with murder on
these lands because they think the public isn't watching," says Tim
Lillebo of ONRC.  "Today we put them on notice that they must
stop the lawless destruction of these forests and woodlands."