Activists, Forest Service negotiate

A large crowd watched in enforced silence on Tuesday, September 30, as Karen Coulter of Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project wrangled with Forest Service representatives over a proposal to treat 12,500 acres of land in the Metolius Basin.

The nonprofit activist group opposes cutting large trees and activity Coulter thinks will harm soils in the area of the Metolius Basin Forest Management Project. She argued last week that the Forest Service should separate out what she considers commercial cutting of old growth trees from what she considers legitimate fuel reduction efforts.

The appeal has frustrated some local activists, who want to see the project move forward.

The discussion with Sisters District Ranger Bill Anthony and Deschutes National Forest Supervisor Leslie Weldon was conducted in the "informal" negotiating format that traditionally accompanies an administrative appeal.

The meeting was unusual because close to 100 people showed up to watch the discussions. The audience was expressly forbidden to comment on the negotiations. The turnout reflected what the Forest Service characterizes as an exceptional level of public interest and involvement in the project.

Coulter and attorney Susan Jane Brown of the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center argued for a reduction in diameter on the trees the Metolius Project would allow to be cut.

The project allows cutting trees up to 16 inches in diameter; Coulter argued for a limit of 12 inches. She also argued that the "small tree thinning" portion of the plan should be capped at eight- or nine-inch diameter trees instead of 12 inches.

Coulter said she was willing to accept slightly higher diameters in "defensible space" areas directly protecting homes from fire danger but not on a "landscape level."

Anthony argued that reducing diameters cut would leave too much of the forest at unhealthy density and at risk of high intensity fire.

Reducing diameters to 12 inches would leave 94 percent of the project area at risk of moderate- to high-intensity fire.

"You get a greater reduction in fire intensity with thinning even up to 16 inches," he said.

Reducing small tree thinning diameters to eight or nine inches, "you're still leaving stands at a higher density than they can sustain," Anthony argued.

Anthony told The Nugget on Monday that he has forwarded the project plan on to the Forest Service Region Six office for review as it stands.

"It doesn't make sense from the standpoint of the project to break it up," he said. "We really feel like that doesn't accomplish the purpose of the project."

Coulter said that her group will likely seek court-ordered mediation, which could delay the project.

"We're just trying to avoid the logging of large trees" along with soil and water impacts, Coulter said. "This (timber) sale is of enormous scale."

She acknowledged that local environmental groups including the Oregon Natural Resources Council and the Sisters Forest Planning Committee have accepted the project. She believes they are acting on a political calculus as to what is achievable under the Bush administration.

She said her group's mission is to protect biodiversity.

"I'm not going to let the politics interfere with that when that's what's at stake -- and it is with this sale."

Coulter and her group don't have much local support.

Bruce Berryhill, a local environmentalist who serves on the project's "multi-party monitoring team," thinks the appeal is misguided and unnecessary.

He said he agrees with the Forest Service that the project is necessary to reduce fire danger. Berryhill said he doesn't always like the way the Forest Service communicates, but he does think the culture of the agency has changed for the better. He doesn't believe they will use this project to cut big trees for commercial aims.

Besides, Berryhill argued, local activists such as the Friends of the Metolius are deeply involved.

"The Forest Service isn't going to get away with anything on this project, because it's Camp Sherman," he said. "This is their home. They're not going to let the Forest Service screw this up."

Berryhill believes some logging is valid and necessary on national forests and that activists shouldn't auto- matically oppose a project because commercial logging is involved.

"They would rather see the forest burn than anyone make a penny off it," he said.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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