10/16/97
The remaining five ancient forest units of the China left timber sale which were awaiting a decision by NMFS will not be logged. Siskiyou National Forest Supervisor Mike Lunn has written a letter to Chief Mike Dombeck asking that the remaining forest acres of the timber sale be canceled as part of the sale. The purchaser of the sale, Rough & Ready timber company, has agreed to be paid for the remaining ancient forest representing some two million board feet.
The "units" of ancient forest range in size from 6 to 21 acres and are located on steep slopes in the Sucker Creek watershed, a Key Watershed for the restoration of salmon. Even so, the Siskiyou National Forest scheduled the area for clear cutting under a 1989 amendment that exempted logging in the northwest from environmental laws. The sale was withdrawn by the Forest Service in 1993 because "We judge the impact from the sale on Critical Habitat to be unacceptable, and the sale could not be easily modified to eliminate the negative impacts. Therefore, the Siskiyou National Forest assumed the China Left Timber Sale could not be awarded." That changed under the so-called "Salvage logging rider" and logging began last year. Since that time, dozens of brave folks have attempted to slow the logging by blockading the site and placing their bodies between the chainsaws and the trees. In addition, hundreds of others have phoned, written letters, and signed petitions calling for the sale to be stopped. Many were arrested, and some were assaulted by law enforcement.
On April 24, 1997 the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) proposed protection for the coho salmon. The Forest Service, however, began allowing road work early in the spring as the logging road had failed in a number of places due to winter storms. Some of the road failures were dramatic with huge sections of road giving way resulting in debris flows of mud and trees that weighed tons. Deep Creek a tributary of the Left Fork was scoured to bedrock for hundreds of yards. Limestone Creek jumped its course and flowed down the road. Brush Creek blasted through road fill destroying streamside habitat and dumping sediment into Sucker Creek, one of the best remaining silver salmon spawning areas in the Siskiyou.
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The police stand guard over a person locked underneath the car. The puppet of the rally stands guard over the police, and the old-growth tree watches over all. But the destruction of the Siskiyou ecosystems is defended by men with guns. 14 peaceful and nonviolent citizens are arrested. |
| People stop Rough and Ready's logging truck from removing the killed old-growth trees from the public's land. Other people chain themselves to the truck's axial and on top of the load. |
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On June 4, 1997 the southern Oregon coho salmon was formally protected under the Endangered Species Act and listed as threatened with extinction. The NMFS then began a review of the timber sale. Logging on these five units, all in designated forest "Reserve"land has been suspended since that time. This decision asking that the sale be canceled, though later in coming then we would have liked is still to be commended. Our hope is the decision to protect these forest reserves will mark the end of commercial logging for all wild forests reserves in some of the most biologically diverse forest in the world. To all of you that helped, the Siskiyou forest defenders, go to the forest the best thanks is there.
steve marsden
