B&B recovery plan includes some logging

After the 92,000-acre B&B Complex and the 3,600-acre Link fires were controlled last year, Sisters District Ranger Bill Anthony and his staff faced a monumental rehabilitation job.

These fires, when combined with the 23,573-acre Eyerly Fire and the 3,894-acre Cache Mountain Fire of 2002, had burned about 125,000 acres -- one-fourth of the district. With work just being completed on recovery plans for the 2002 fires, new challenges must now be confronted.

Last week Sisters Ranger District publicized proposed actions to restore the B&B fire area. The district invites public comments to identify issues and concerns on these proposed actions. Comments will be accepted through August 20.

The B&B Fire Recovery Project area includes some 40,935 acres of National Forest land within the Sisters Ranger District -- about 64 square miles. Burned-over lands west of the Cascade summit, in the Cache Mountain Natural Area and in the Mount Jefferson Wilderness are outside the project area.

The draft recovery plan proposes salvage logging on only 10,000 to 14,000 acres of the fire. The logging would not begin sooner than July of 2005 and could be delayed by more than three months if legal challenges are received or if public comments suggest major changes, Anthony said.

"We understand that the salvage of trees from fire areas is controversial, not just among the public, but from foresters as well," Anthony said. "Our intent under this recovery project is to protect all important resources including riparian areas, soil and water quality, plants, wildlife and fish. Even with post-fire salvage, we consider what we leave to be as important as what we take."

The project proposal lists several major purposes:

• Harvest dead and dying timber while it still has value.

• Reduce harvest slash in salvage areas to keep any future fires at normal severity.

• Reforest salvage units to return forest to desired conditions.

• Make roads and areas of high use safe for the public and forest workers.

• Reduce the miles of open roads to protect all forest resources.

Lands that are not being considered for treatment under this proposed action include private lands (some private landowners have already initiated recovery work; see The Nugget, July 21); certain northern spotted owl habitat; riparian reserves; landslide areas in the Canyon Creek and Cabot Creek drainages; and ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir stands where the fire burned low to the ground and didn't kill trees.

Other lands excluded from the project are the Metolius Wild and Scenic River corridor, recent timber sales and plantations, and high elevation areas that have a normal fire occurrence every 50 to 100 years.

Work began on the fire area as soon as the fire was controlled, Anthony said. Rehabilitation was done on lands impacted by bulldozers and hand trails, snags were removed along major roads and some riparian work was completed. Crews also inspected all of the burned area to determine the level of damage and to determine what recovery work should be done.

The district did receive some additional funding for preparing the recovery plan and help from other agency offices.

An interdisciplinary team will develop alternatives to the proposed actions based on public comments. In addition, a steering committee representing the Sisters District, the Deschutes National Forest, the Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and others provide overall direction.

The workload for the project has greatly impacted the district staff and will continue to do so for the next two or three years, Anthony said.

"Every one of our people from trail coordinators to foresters to staff specialists have been involved in some way with the impacts of this fire from the day it was controlled," he said.

Interested persons may obtain a copy of the project proposal letter by contacting project leader Tom Mafera at 549-7744 or by visiting the Sisters Ranger District.