Cooper Creek Reservoir and
the City of Sutherlin

11/15/02:

Logging began last month on schedule in spite of public concerns, and Phase 1 of the project is now almost complete.

Instead, Lone Rock Timber has erected a business sign in the public park facing the hillside that will be almost entirely clearcut over the next 40 years and maintained as an industrial tree-farm. The sign says that clearcutting and spraying the watershed will be good for Sutherlin, including a good educational experience.

Lone Rock Timber's written plan, submitted with notification to start logging on October 14, says that a portion of slopes have a "potential for shallow slope failures". Plans to prevent landslides into the reservoir include retaining all ground vegetation to within 20 feet of draws. This would be the ground vegetation left after they spray it with herbicides in preparation for the logging. Additional precautionary measures include "stringing a cable across the draw... to increase the barrier potential to any material reaching the lake in case of a slope failure."

The Lone Rock Timber clearcut is in an area mapped by DEQ as "sensitive" for "High Soil Erosion Potential". The clearcut will be just above the Dam holding back the Cooper Creek Reservoir. Below the older earthen dam is a relatively new trailer park with hundreds or thousands of people living there. Sutherlin's evacuation plan for the dam states that "should [the dam] fail without warning, extensive loss of life and property damage would likely occur." The evacuation plan also says, "any landslide that could move into the reservoir rapidly displacing large volumes of water, would be especially dangerous."

The Oregon Water Resources Department, Safety of Dams assessed the situation last spring. They concluded that "Floating materials accompanying a debris flow landslide into the reservoir" could "obstruct the entrance to the emergency spillway" and "cause complete failure of the dam". They recommended three precautionary measures: 1) install a backup system during harvesting activities capable of pumping water from the reservoir; 2) update an Emergency Action Plan referencing the timber harvesting, with instructions for evacuation of downstream residents; and 3) all slash be removed during logging.

None of these recommendations are in place.

5/22/01

The City of Sutherlin does not own the watershed that feeds their water supply. Lone Rock Timber owns it and they intend on logging most of it in the next 20 (or so) years. Lone Rock wants to clearcut and spray herbicides on the Cooper Creek watershed on the south side of the Reservoir, 1300 acres known at the "Wahl Tract Tree Farm." In the next 10 years Lone Rock plans to clearcut and spray about 500 acres, and the rest could be clearcut and sprayed throughout the following decade.

Forest cover is critical for the watershed to supply as much clean water as possible to Sutherlin. Once the forest cover is logged, it will take at least 30 years to provide the same amount of clean water that it provides now. Unfortunately Lone Rock Timber intends to take it all within 20 years. Will the fastest growing city in Douglas County still have enough clean water in 20 years?

BLM is now accepting your comments on the question: Shall we give Lone Rock Timber our public forests to facilitate the logging of the municipal watershed? By coincidence, the few acres of public land in the area contain some of the highest peaks. Lone Rock wants to road and clearcut the BLM forests (described as "mature and old-growth) to put up their yarding towers so they can extract their trees with less expense than helicopter yarding. One parcel of public land adjoins the City of Sutherlin and one is above Cooper Creek Reservoir. The BLM has said the public forests Lone Rock wants to clearcut are "Mature and Old Growth" forests.

The two areas that involve public land are:

Roseburg BLM recreation map. Scale = 1" to 1mi. Orange=BLM land, white=private land, yellow=City of Sutherlin. #'s 1 and 2 are public forests Lone Rock Timber wants.

1) Eighty acres of public land (managed by BLM) is near the south side of the Cooper Creek Reservoir. (See #1 on Map). Lone Rock Timber plans to clear-cut their land between the BLM 80 acres and the Reservoir next year. To facilitate their logging, Lone Rock wants to build a new road to the highest point on the BLM land to put up their yarding equipment. Lone Rock Timber also wants to clearcut two more acres of public forest on the mountain top for their yarding corridor.

2) Immediately adjacent to the southern boundary of the City of Sutherlin is 80 more acres of public land (also managed by BLM). (See #2 on Map.) Just south of that BLM land is where Lone Rock wants to do more logging. Again, Lone Rock needs to build a road through public forests to access the high point in the southeast corner of the BLM land.

Neither the BLM, nor the public they represent, have legal access to these two 80-acre parcels of public land. A BLM representative told us that, "The Federal Government doesn't have legal access to cross Lone Rock property, except to work on this project." Lone Rock is allowing the BLM access in order to prepare for this project, but not for anything else.

Public Access to Public Forests for Commenting

The BLM has released an Environmental Analysis (EA) on the proposed right-of-way that you can comment on. The EA analyzes both a "no action alternative" (our favorite) and BLMâs "preferred alternative" -- giving Lone Rock what they want of our public forests. Would you like to see this forest before you comment, or even before itâs cut down? You canât. Lone Rock is refusing you legal access. Lone Rock wonât even let the BLM escort citizens in. Lone Rock is only allowing BLM in to work on this project and nothing more. Hopefully, Lone Rock will reconsider this restriction. It's difficult for the public to submit comments on a project without access to see the project. We think any interested public has a right to look at the public forests that Lone Rock plans to clear-cut, before they log it.

Public Access to Public Forests for Recreation

We encouraged the BLM to include all of the public in any access deal BLM worked out with Lone Rock. Older right-of-way agreements between BLM and timber companies usually excluded the general public. Because of these arrangements, only federal employees, or timber companies with logging rights, have access to much of our public lands managed by the BLM in Douglas County. This current road deal in the works will involve public forests immediately adjoining an urban center, Sutherlin. Everybody should have access to it. Unfortunalely, the BLM did not address full public access in the EA, and if approved, will simply continue excluding the public from public lands.

Public Access to Public Forests for Monitoring

In 1998 we found a road built by Lone Rock Timber on BLM land that had failed. (See picture in our summer 1998 newsletter.) Only after we alerted Lone Rock and BLM was it fixed. If the public is barred from our public lands above Cooper Creek Reservoir, who will know if this road fails, too? The EA did not address the need to monitor Lone Rock to see if they will continue to fail in their promises.

Industrial Access to Public Forests is not an automatic right.

Lone Rock Timber claims that if we don't give them access to the BLM old-growth, they will have to use bad yarding methods (like downhill yarding). We wouldn't want that on our conscience, especially right above Sutherlin's drinking water supply. Our response is that Lone Rock should helicopter yard. It would be more expensive, but they could still make a profit and the City of Sutherlin is worth the extra expense.

Mountain top owned by BLM that Lone Rock wants to clearcut for their yarding tower, as seen from Cooper Creek Reservoir.

Private Land Logging

Lone Rock Timber has stated they will protect the visual beauty of this area that is enjoyed by many citizens by letting clearcuts "green-up" before clearcutting more, as if a green clearcut fools Sutherlin residents into not knowing it's a clearcut. (Tourist access to the reservoir is from the north so the south side is what is seen the most.) Because Lone Rock wants to hurry the "green-up", even more herbicides will have to be sprayed into the watershed. Common forestry herbicides that Lone Rock could be spraying in the Cooper Creek watershed is Glyphosate or 2-4d. Usually these chemicals are aerial sprayed.


Why is clearcutting a municipal watershed bad?

One example: increased sunlight = increased water evaporation = less water. Clearcutting allows for more sunlight over the next 30 years, accelerating evaporation of water that would normally seep into the ground and reservoir. And no matter how careful Lone Rock claims to be, clearcutting and road building will cause additional sediment to fill in behind the dam, reducing the area for stored water and increasing water filtration costs. For instance, Lone Rock plans to put only a measly 20 foot vegetation buffer (zero tree buffer) next to streams, as well as build roads right over streams. Clearly this is a inadequate protection from sediments, especially during big storm events. (The federal government has determined that 180 feet is needed in this area to reduce pollution from entering the water).

For more information on the effects of logging municipal watersheds, see the DEQ drinking water protection site. From there you can also download DEQ's "List of Potential Contaminant Sources and Impacts" which states that clearcuts less than 35 years are a potential source of contaminates to drinking water.