Elk City timber sale challenged

LEWISTON – Environmentalists have filed suit over a U.S. Bureau of Land Management timber sale touted as a line of security against fires near Elk City.

The Idaho Conservation League and the Friends of the Clearwater say the Whiskey South project will harm water quality and wildlife habitat.

The groups filed suit Tuesday. Jonathan Oppenheimer of the Idaho Conservation League said his group is not opposed to logging at Whiskey South but opposes the BLM’s methods. The logging is too close to streams and does not leave enough cover on a ridge critical to big game travel, he said. “We are not just trying to tie up this sale,” he said. “We do have substantial concerns with this project.”

The Friends of the Clearwater feel the entire drainage should be rested from logging, said Gary Macfarlane, of Moscow.

But the groups agree the sale jeopardizes the streams because trees would be cut inside of normal streamside buffer zones.

The Nez Perce Tribe has filed an appeal of the sale based on similar concerns but is not a party to the environmentalists’ suit.

The BLM says the Whiskey South project would use combi-nation of timber sales and prescribed burns to reduce the risk of a large wildfire sweeping into the remote town of 400.

The agency says the forest is infested with mountain pine beetles that have left millions of dead and dying trees.

Whiskey South was developed to help reduce fire risk and also provide jobs locally through stewardship contracts that trade forest restoration work for timber.

It is part of the Bush administration’s Healthy Forest Initiative.