Decisions clear way for forest action

Two decisions handed down by the U. S. District Court in Oregon in July could allow the Sisters Ranger District to proceed with forest management operations.

On July 13, U. S. Magistrate Judge John Jelderks denied claims that would stop commercial salvage logging and recovery plans on lands burned by the 2002 Eyerly Fire.

The claims were made by the Cascadia Wildlands Project, the Oregon Natural Resources Council, the League of Wilderness Defenders — Blue Mountain Diversity Project, and the Sierra Club.

The U. S. District Judge reviewed the findings.

In the lawsuit, the environmental organizations made six specific claims that the Forest Service violated the National Forest Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. All claims were denied.

The Eyerly Fire Recovery Project called for salvage of dead and dying trees on 3,426 acres and salvage of dying trees only on 1,426 acres, hazard tree removal in two campgrounds on selected roads, and construction of 2.2 miles of temporary roads. Other work planned included reducing fuels following salvage work, reforesting 3,918 acres and replacing two old-growth habitat areas.

The Eyerly Fire was started by lightning on July 9, 2002 on the north side of the Metolius arm of Lake Billy Chinook on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. In two days, the fire spread into the Sisters Ranger District and eventually burned 23,134 acres. Some 17,786 acres of the fire was within the Sisters Ranger District.

Another major court decision came on July 27 when U. S. Magistrate Judge Donald C. Ashmanskas issued a decision supporting the plans of the Forest Service to thin more than 10,000 acres in the Metolius Basin.

In last month’s decision, the judge first stated that the organizations appealing the decision had no legal standing since they had not suffered any injury, that there was no connection between any injury and the project, and that any injury could not be resolved by a favorable decision.

However, the judge still proceeded to review their claim on its merits, denying all parts of it.

That decision could be appealed to the U. S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Because there was no injunction filed to halt the work, some thinning has been done. Contracts will be issued next year to thin between 1,000 and 2,000 acres.

“This has been a project well rooted with a community sense of urgency,” said Sisters District Ranger Bill Anthony. “It started in 1999 when the Friends of the Metolius approached the Forest Service wanting to know when we were going to be doing some forest restoration work in the Metolius Basin. They proposed a partnership with us in developing some demonstration projects to help gain a broad community support. This became the Metolius Heritage Demonstration Project.”

The Forest Service and the Friends split all the costs of project, Anthony added.

“In 2001 there was the big snow and ice storm that broke and bent over thousands of trees and that really created a sense of urgency,” Anthony said.

The project was initiated in 2001 with a Record of Decision issued in July of 2003. Shortly after that the B&B Fire burned through some of the project area.

The League of Wilderness Defenders-Blue Mountain Biodiversity Project filed an appeal of the decision in September 2003 and the appeal was denied.

This led to a lawsuit filed by the same group in March 2004 with the main issue in the lawsuit focused on big trees to be preserved and preventing any commercial harvesting.

“This was the first time that any of us know of that two other local environmental organizations, Sisters Forest Planning Committee and the Friends of the Metolius, intervened on behalf of the Forest Service and argued for the project, investing both time and finances in their effort,” Anthony said.