Update 1999: We lost our appeal on this sale. It was cut in 1998.

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1998

The Umpqua National Forest has decided to log the Dog Prairie DEMO timber sale. It will log 118 acres of 7.6 mmbf of old-growth forests (1,520 truck loads). Sixty of those acres are clearcuts, with 15% retention. It will log 2.1 acres of riparian reserves, including a wetland seep withing one of the clearcut untis. There is no watershed analysis, in spite of the Northwest Forest Plan requiring a watershed analysis before logging in riparian reserves. In the same vein as Little River, Layng Creek and other DEMO sales, this is a research project to test the assumptions of the Northwest Forest Plan, and as such, is exempt from all laws.

"51% of the 118 acres would be harvested in high risk soils" based on soil types, but the soils scientist thinks it will be safe enough. (All quotes are from the EA). The Dog Prairie sale analysis area effects the home of 5 pairs of owls. One of these pairs has their home range within the harvested units. A red-legged frog was found in unit 5 "during a pre-treatment trapping project" (which means it has probably been killed.) The potential for California wolverine exists within the area and the sale will result in the loss of wolverine habitat. The sale also effects the American marten, pileated woodpecker, red-breasted sapsucker, northern flicker, and black-back woodpecker. Sixty percent of the woodpecker population will be fed and housed by killing live trees; after the logging, two to three live trees per acre will be killed to help meet future snag requirements. Some of the leave trees targeted for killing will be "within the intermittent stream in unit 4 and the seep in unit 6".

We don't know if Umpqua cutthroat trout exists in Dog Prairie Creek, because the work "to determine fish species present has not been completed." I was told by the district fisheries biologist that the Forest hasn't gotten around to doing the watershed analysis for the sale area, because they have been so busy doing the watershed analysis for the North Umpqua/Diamond Lake area. They need to get that done first because they have to poison (rotenone) Diamond Lake soon (to kill off non-game fish species).

This sale is in the Dog Prairie Creek sub-watershed, and faces the Snog timber sale on the other side of the creek. Snog, as you remember, was a recessions act (logging without laws rider) option 9 sale that was challenged by SCLDF because the UNF fisheries biologist said it might not attain the goals the ACS. We lost because the recessions act prohibited citizen challenges.

Dog Prairie Creek flows into Rough creek (home of Roughneck timber sale , in the same challenge by SCLDF), which flows into Fish Creek. The entire watershed is within the habitat of the endangered Umpqua cutthroat trout.

The Environmental Analysis talks about Rough Creek:

"As a result of past [logging] activities, Rough Creek is... experiencing channel degradation... will continue to experience peak flows... resulting in additional stream channel scour... Landslide and road sediment delivery would continue to be moderate to high due to existing and future management activities... The risk of a debris torrent occurring in Rough Creek is high... Snog timber sale is assumed to occur in 1998... These activities would slightly increase stream flows and landslide risk in both Dog Prairie and Rough Creeks, which has the potential to adversely effect fisheries habitat and beneficial uses."

The Environmental Analysis talks about Dog Prairie Creek:

"... modification and partial impairment of fisheries habitat has occurred in Dog Prairie Creek... Fish migration, at least during base flows, would continue to be impaired. ... current channel conditions are partially a result of a combination of past and current water yields above pre-logged values.... The class IV stream channel at the edge of proposed unit four would experience increased peak flows... Seeps in and down stream from harvest would also experience flow increases... Increases in average annual stream flow, the annual peak, and the duration of the peak are likely to result from the proposed activities... Channel degradation in one reach would continue, and result in further fisheries habitat modification, and the risk of debris torrents would slightly increase."

All of these effects "are likely to be unmeasurable." If anything bad happens, the watershed would be improved anyway by decommissioning road 550 (alternative 3 only). Road 550 is a road through Dog Prairie (it really is a prairie, separating Snog and Dog Prairie timber sales.) It has been blocked for years, and has largely reclaimed itself. The road starts on the Dog Prairie sale side, and eventually crosses the creek to the Snog timber sale side. Once over the creek, road 550 goes through a stupendous stand of huge ancient trees - one of the most beautiful groves I have ever seen - flat, wet, and filled with giant trees. This grove is the riparian reserve of the Snog timber sale, unit 2. Road 550 eventually travels between this reserve and unit 2 of Snog. It will likely be decommissioned after Snog is logged in 1998.

The Dog Prairie timber sale will log "in mature Douglas fir, incense cedar, Shasta red fir." White pine, western hemlock and pacific silver fir are also present. The project will increase fuel loading to the point that if a fire does start, "ground crews would be unable to control" it. And finally: if we did NOT log Dog Prairie, there would be "no benefit to local communities," and there would be "timber volume lost to stand deterioration". However, if we log, it "could aid in incorporating minority groups and women into under-represented job fields. The no action alternative would not provide this opportunity."