USFS contractor hit by immigration raid

BOISE – Immigration officials are investigating an Oregon company that acted as a contractor for the U.S. Forest Service after an immigration raid led to the arrest of 14 of the company’s employees.

Cutting Edge Forestry Inc., based in Phoenix, Ore., was hired under a $92,000 contract to replant 834 acres of Boise National Forest land that was burned in the 2003 Hot Creek Fire, said Boise National Forest spokesman David Olson.

The 14 workers were arrested Tuesday at a hotel in Idaho City, about 20 miles northeast of Boise, as part of an ongoing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation into work site violations. Ten of the workers were deported to Mexico and four others were released pending an immigration hearing, said Carl Rusnok, ICE spokesman.

Cutting Edge Forestry officials could not be reached for comment Friday.

The company will be expected to finish replanting the remaining 500 acres of Douglas fir and Ponderosa pine trees before summer begins, Olson said.

“You have to plant in cooler times, when the ground is moist,” Olson said. “We have a contract with (Cutting Edge) and our anticipation is that they will finish the job.”

Since 2003, crews from various companies have replanted 4,040 acres of Hot Creek.

Cutting Edge’s contract called for the planting of 20,000 seedlings in terrain that is so rugged that workers had to be transported to the site by helicopter.

“They planted in areas ranging from ridge tops to steep slopes,” Olson said.

The contract requires the company to meet the nation’s laws, and it specifies the conditions that employees work under, including how they are paid, how they are treated and how they are housed.

An inspection of Cutting Edge’s work last year showed the company did a good job with the reforestation, Olson said.

For now, Olson said his office is working with the company to get replacement workers as soon as possible.

“Our prime interest is to insure the trees are planted correctly,” he said.