Lawsuit Challenges Copper Butte, Curlew Creek Timber Sales

The East Curlew Creek and Copper Butte timber sales are expensive invasions of a roadless section of Eastern Washington forest, a lawsuit filed Wednesday charges.

Taxpayers will lose at least $125,000 on the Copper Butte fire salvage sale, says the suit filed in U.S. District Court by the Kettle Range Conservation Group, Inland Empire Public Lands Council, and Northwest Ecosystem Alliance.

The Forest Service predicted it would get $170 per thousand board feet in the Copper Butte sale, said Sara Folger of the Public Lands Council. After two tries, the agency hasn’t been able to get $41 per thousand board feet.

“Overall, the estimates of revenue in Forest Service documents for all of the sales were wildly optimistic,” Folger said.

Beyond money, environmentalists contend that the proposed timber harvests will take 10 million board feet of timber from in and around the Profanity Roadless area. That’s a mistake because it takes many of the remaining 200-year-old trees in the area, they said.

In addition, even the environmental im pact statement says salvage logging will do nothing to help the health of the forest, Coleman said.

The Forest Service acknowledges that the salvage logging won’t help the forest. “It won’t hurt it either,” said Pat Egan, Republic district ranger.

There are no new roads being constructed for the timber sales, Egan said. All logging in roadless areas is being done by helicopter.

“There are no major impacts to the environment,” Egan said.

The economics of the sale are affected by poor timber prices, the Forest Service said. But that’s not a fair representation of the entire picture.

“The net return to the U.S. Treasury isn’t the only economic benefit,” Egan said. “It’s the jobs and economic returns to the local community because people are employed.”

, DataTimes MEMO: IDAHO HEADLINE: Suit protests 2 timber sales