Eyerly salvage loses emergency status

The Eyerly Fire Salvage Sale lost its emergency status on September 10 when the designation was withdrawn by the Deschutes National Forest.

The action means that even if the Forest Service does find a willing buyer for the fire-killed timber, it cannot be logged before November 15 following a 105-day appeals period required for non-emergency salvage sales.

Sisters District Ranger Bill Anthony said that the value of the timber had declined enough in the two years since the fire that it did not justify continuing the emergency status.

Last August, Deschutes Forest Supervisor Leslie Weldon announced a decision to place the sale in an emergency status to speed up the salvage of the timber without the normal 105-day appeals period.

She stated that this action was being taken to minimize the economic loss of timber to insects and disease. The emergency action is allowed under provisions of the Bush administration's Healthy Forests Act.

When the first auction was held August 10, no bids were received for the salvage sale. Forest industry spokesmen explained that they were concerned about the value of two-year-old fire-killed timber.

In 2002, the Eyerly Fire burned 23,573 acres near the head of the Metolius Arm of Lake Billy Chinook on the Deschutes National Forest about 20 miles north of Sisters.

Some 17,871 acres of the fire were on the Sisters Ranger District with the remaining acres on state, private and Confederated Tribes of Warm Spring land.

The fire destroyed 18 homes in the Three Rivers area.

Other Eyerly Fire Salvage auctions may be held later this year. Both supporters and critics of the salvage plans will also be following similar plans for salvage sales of fire-killed timber of the 2003 B&B Complex Fire that burned in the Santiam Pass and Metolius River Basin.