Forest project challenged

The largest restoration project ever proposed in a late successional reserve on the Deschutes National Forest will now stand the test of public appeals.

Three separate appeals were recently filed with the U.S. Forest Service against the Santiam Late Successional Reserve (Santiam LSR) Restoration Project.

A local coalition of environmental groups and individuals filed a joint appeal against the proposal, which includes over 2,500 acres of commercial timber harvest north of Suttle Lake and east of the Pacific Crest.

The collective includes the Juniper Group of the Sierra Club; Oregon Natural Resources Council; Central Oregon Forest Issues Committee (COFIC); and citizens Kris Balliet, Jack Sterne, and their three-year-old son, Edisto Metolius Sterne.

Led by COFIC Director Steve Huddleston, the coalition alleges the Forest Service is breaking its own laws under the Northwest Forest Plan and the National Forest Management Act.

"They are basically promising to improve habitat in the future by trashing it now," Huddleston said.

A local forest activist for the last six years, Huddleston contends that, "projects for ecosystem restoration shouldn't be presented as commercial timber sales Merchantable products should be sold, but they shouldn't drive the project."

Rod Bonacker, Environmental Coordinator for the Sisters Ranger District, disagrees that a timber sale is the primary motive for action.

"If merchantability were driving the project, we'd be taking a whole lot more (trees) out - the biggest and healthiest trees - and that's simply not the case," Bonacker said.

"What's driving the project is the need to protect what little late successional habitat remains and to start other areas (of the forest) on the track to develop new habitat (within) 100 years."

But according to appellant and environmental lawyer Jack Sterne, the proposed cutting unduly threatens local spotted owls.

"It's counterintuitive to go in and log now to create habitat in 80 to 100 years," Sterne contends. "Where are (the owls) going to go?"

Stern explained that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued 11 'incidental take permits' for spotted owls on three separate timber sales, including Jack Canyon, Santiam Corridor and the Santiam LSR.

These permits allow forest managers to proceed with specific projects despite direct threats to the threatened species.

"Despite that fact, (the Forest Service) has never done an overall cumulative impact analysis on spotted owl populations," Sterne claims.

Bonacker defends the Forest Service's owl research, saying, "the latest supplement to the Northwest Forest Plan (evaluates cumulative impacts) in the entire range of the northern spotted owl."

Bonacker further explained the dynamics in deciding to cut trees to protect owl habitat.

"With the assurance of different types of funding (for the project), we would not do a timber sale," he said. "In the absence of that funding, we decided it was better to do something (to restore the forest) than nothing at all."

According to Bonacker, the Sisters Ranger District has received a "fair amount of funding for tree thinning and natural fuels reduction," but the Santiam LSR is too large a project to be covered by these limited resources.

Sterne acknowledges the agency's funding challenges.

"I appreciate the dilemma the Forest Service is in," he said. "Their budget is tied too closely to timber sales and (therefore) Congress needs to fund the (agency) in different ways."

The Santiam LSR Project was also appealed by Bend resident, Wendell Thompson, and Forest Guardians of New Mexico, an advocacy group spearheading a movement to eliminate timber sales nationwide, according to Bonacker.

COFIC's Huddleston expressed skepticism about the appeal process.

"(The Forest Service) dismisses nearly all appeals," he said. "It is their policy to reject them out of hand and force appellants to go to court."

Bonacker denied Huddleston's accusation, saying that the agency would rather resolve appeals informally in separate meetings with appellants.

"We welcome the appeal process because it helps us make better decisions," he said.

Sisters District Ranger Bill Anthony added, "It is not in anybody's best interest to take cases to court. We are always interested in people's concerns to see if there are better ways to accomplish the objectives of the project."

If their appeal is denied, Huddleston says COFIC and its co-appellants will likely take legal action.

"We are prepared to go to court on this if we have to," he said.