Appeal puts brakes on B&B Fire salvage

Just when salvage operations on the site of the 2003 B & B Complex Fire west of Sisters were moving at full speed, legal action has put the brakes on the felling of dead trees over 18 inches in diameter.

A compromise worked out between advocates of salvage operations, (including salvage contractor Intrerior Pacific of Gilchrist and others supporting that company) and opponents of the salvage, is allowing the continued removal of trees already felled and decked, plus standing snags less than 18 inches in diameter, according to Molly Shaudet, litigation coordinator for the Deschutes National Forest.

Over 90,000 acres burned three years ago in two major fires that eventually burned together, reaching from south of the Santiam Pass north to the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Forest Service plans for the rehabilitation of nine percent of the fire area included salvage of dead trees to reclaim some value of the trees, removal of forest fuels from the land and financing of reforestation and stream protection in the area.

Following an environmental analysis, that plan was approved and sales were made. However, the plan was challenged by a coalition of environmental organizations, including the League of Wilderness Defenders-Blue Mountains Diversity Project. Their request for a preliminary injunction was denied, but that decision was appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last March, Shaudet explained.

In the meantime, one salvage sale made to Boise Buildings Solution was completed. Sisters area residents became accustomed to seeing logging trucks moving through town hauling blackened logs.

With the new appeal, Interfor Pacific faced the challenge of having a large volume of snags already felled and decked for removal. The Forest Service expressed concern over that much fuel being left on the ground as the 2006 wildfire season approached. In the meantime, Boise Buildings Solution and the American Forest Resources Council joined Interfor Pacific as intervenors.

The two groups met and worked out the compromise allowing some salvage operations to continue. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals approved that compromise while the court reviewed the merits of the appeal.