Salvage Logging Limits Tightened Forest Service Decision Leaves Environmentalists Skeptical

Restrictions allowing “salvage logging” on federal land across the West were tightened Tuesday by the U.S. Forest Service, a move that outraged the timber industry and left environmentalists skeptical.

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said from Washington that he wanted to ensure that salvage timber sales represent true emergency actions to combat insect infestations and reduce forest fire danger, and not simply provide loggers with an excuse to cut more trees, as environmentalists have charged.

Glickman’s directive increases public disclosure about salvage timber sales, prohibits salvage logging in pristine areas, minimizes construction of new roads and reduces the amount of healthy trees that can be cut along with dead and dying timber.

The action will bring salvage ogging around the country to a “screeching halt,” said Jim Geisinger, president of the Northwest Forestry Association, a timber industry group in Portland.

“This is the worst case of micro-managing an agency I’ve ever seen,” he added. “I think that as election day grows nearer, the response of the White House to anything and everything the environmental community wants seems to be increasing.”

The sale of salvage timber in areas off-limits to regular logging was made possible by the rider - enacted by Congress last summer at the request of the timber industry - which suspends enforcement of environmental laws in emergencies.

The rationale was that speedy logging of dead and dying timber on national forests would reduce the danger of forest fires, as well as infestations.

Its passage enraged environmentalists because it blocked their legal maneuvers to have existing environmental laws enforced.

The rider ushered in a revival of old-growth timber sales in the Northwest that had been withdrawn for environmental concerns. That in turn spurred protests resulting in hundreds of arrests.

Mark Hubbard, spokesman for the Oregon Natural Resources Council, an environmental group in Portland, was skeptical of the directive. He said the Clinton administration had done little but pay lip service to restricting the salvage rider.

Environmentalists have found evidence that healthy timber has been included in salvage timber sales, especially on the east side of the Cascade Range, to make them more attractive to buyers, Hubbard said.

Geisinger did not deny it, but said overstocked stands of green trees are just as susceptible to a forest health catastrophe as an overstocked stand of dead trees.

Glickman’s directive said green or live trees can be cut as part of a salvage timber sale to provide access to the sale site, for safety, or to improve the health of a stand.

The directive won’t keep the Forest Service from meeting a target of 4.5 billion board feet in salvage timber sales by the time the rider expires at the end of this year, he said.

The Forest Service has assembled a team that will report in August on how well the Forest Service has complied with Clinton’s orders to continue to follow environmental laws when preparing salvage timber sales.

xxxx