Santiam salvage logging advances amid protest

After hearing public comment, the Sisters Ranger District will implement a salvage logging project that aims to reduce the risk of fire in the Santiam Corridor near Suttle and Blue Lakes.

The auction of 19 million board feet of timber from the Santiam treatment project is slated for September 17.

The Santiam Corridor Vegetation Management Project involves a commercial timber harvest of 1,830 acres as well as 2,400 acres of noncommercial treatments such as underburning, firewood and post sales, planting, and riparian restoration.

Clear-cutting will create a fuel break to lessen the chance of catastrophic fire in the high mortality tree stands.

The Sisters Ranger District changed virtually nothing in the plan for the project after the comment period.

According to Sandy Hurlocker, Environmental Coordinator with the Sisters Ranger District, "The public comment period is to see if we've left any big holes in our assessment of the situation."

Of the 40 responses received during the 20-day comment period, nearly 70 percent were against the treatment of the forest in the Santiam Corridor.

Many objected to the general effects logging will have in the area including wildlife habitat destruction, erosion impact on watershed and degraded scenic quality.

"The loss of this habitat will be felt for at least 100 years," Paul Dewey of the Sisters Forest Planning Committee wrote.

The Forest Service conceded in its environmental assessment of the project that there will be "incidental takes" of six spotted owl and one bald eagle site. According to a Forest Service press release, these losses "are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence" of the protected species.

Other critics opposed the projected logging of green trees, especially large, old growth stands. The project's policy is to cut no tree over 21 inches, but more than one respondent remained skeptical about the Forest Service's intentions.

Respondent Anita Kirkaldy wrote, "I am sorry to say that projects of this nature appear to me sad and farcical addenda to past ignorance and a continuation of the `get the cut out at all costs' philosophy."

The Forest Service, defended the project, citing severe fire danger in the area due to overgrown fuels and dead tree stands.

Hurlocker told The Nugget, "The fire folks just cringe at the idea of having a fire up there."

"I have weighed the risks of the project against the risks of doing nothing," Forest Supervisor Sally Collins said. "I believe this decision finds the balance that we need to strike."

Critics do not agree.

"We believe it would be far more prudent to take a conservative and light-handed approach to this area," Dewey said.

But others argue that the Sisters Ranger District is compromising and not doing enough in the Santiam Corridor. They are concerned with fixing the blighted forest and keeping wildfire out.

"Log it, clean it, replant it, and get on with it," David Lawrence commented.

John Morgan of the Ochoco Lumber Company wrote, "This alternative should be the minimum one implemented."

The Santiam Corridor timber sale falls under the "salvage rider," which eliminates appeals. Many of the comments railed against what they called "logging without laws."

Hurlocker said the rider was introduced in part because so many U.S. Forest Service initiatives were caught up in appeals court that nothing would get accomplished.