6/14/99
Right View Timber Sale
There are only 32 acres left on the Right View timber sale remaining to be turned into a tree plantation. It is west of the cut units, closer to Susan Creek Recreation area, 1.5 miles up road 22.2. (at the 27 mile marker on the North Umpqua Highway). The cutting prescription for this unit is "regeneration harvest". That means the stand will be regenerated anew after most of it is cut. A few more trees will be left than traditional clear-cuts -- BLM will leave as little as 12 trees per acre over 20" wide. This is not a "thinning" prescription because the vast majority of the trees, including the largest and best trees, have been sold to industry. All the trees seen in the pictures below (and many more) will be cut this summer if all goes as BLM plans.
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This area rivals the Susan Creek trail in its beauty, wildlife, and natural wonder. The largest trees in the stand are both Douglas Fir (left) and Sugar Pine (right). |
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The Sugar Pine trees in this unit (upper right) are exceptionally healthy and disease free. A disease, called Blister Rust, was imported from Europe and came to the Pacific Northwest about 50 years ago. Since then, Sugar Pine trees have died by the thousands. Some pines seem to be genetically resistant to the disease and hold the hope for the future of this species. Unfortunately many of the sugar pines in Right View will be logged. BLM claims it is adequate to log the healthy, live sugar pines if they replant with seedlings they think might be disease resistant.
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Left: BLM has planned a new road for trucks to haul out the logs after they
are cut. The two people on the left are in the proposed road right-of-way. Right: This old Douglas Fir tree has created a large burl at its base. The burl is an example of some of the diversity produced by old forests that has been eliminated in tree plantations. |
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Wildlife: Unit 32 is very close to a Spotted Owl Nest, and is used by these owls for foraging for food. Unfortunately, even though BLM cannot cut down an owl's bedroom (nest tree), BLM is allowed to cut down the owl's kitchen. This stand is also habitat for the endangered the Northern Goshawk, and is within the home range of a nesting pair, the only documented, active nesting pair in the Roseburg District. And of course, this forest is home to the red tree vole and other old-growth dependent wildlife.
Standing and fallen dead trees are an important component of all old-growth forests. Standing dead trees, called snags, supply soft wood for woodpeckers to build their homes in, which in turn supply homes for many other birds, all of whom eat forest insects and control disease outbreaks. Unfortunately these important wildlife trees will be cut, for the most part, during the logging operation to assure logger safety. BLM has claimed in news reports that they are leaving more than the minimum requirement of 12 trees per acre. However, BLM plans to kill these extra trees after the logging to replace the snags that now stand in the unit. Unfortunately the newly created dead trees will not provide the necessary soft wood for many years.
Historical importance: This forest is very close to the Susan Creek Recreation Site and only one mile west of the Susan Creek Falls Trail. This was an important cultural site to the Native Americans. In unit 5, evidence of Native American use was discovered. BLM's report says that in unit 5,"Two archaeological sites and one archaeological isolate were located... The isolate will have no effect on the project. One of the archaeological sites is outside the unit and will also have no effect on the project. The second archaeological site is located in the western portion of the unit. As the unit was originally proposed, the site would have been impacted by both road construction and timber harvest. The unit has since been designed to avoid the site - the road moved to the north and a no harvest buffer flagged around the site."
In other words, BLM will log right over the "isolate" that was found but the two "sites" were conveniently on the edges of the unit so were easy to "buffer out". However, with such a remarkable number of Native American signs, likely the entire forest was important for them.
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