See Pictures of:

• the landslides and clearcuts of Right View unit 2 and 3.
• illegal logging in stream side reserves unit 1.
• the uncut old-growth of Right View unit 5.
• the tree sitters - Protest July 1999
• trees cut around tree sitters, March, 2000
• a view from the trees (off site)

05/11/00

Right View Timber Sale

Roseburg BLM Gets Caught
Illegally Logging Stream Side Reserve.
BLM Apologizes to American Public.
Tree-sit could be resolved.

May 11, 2000. Right View Timber Sale, Glide Oregon:

Today Roseburg BLM announced they will buy back from Herbert Lumber the tree occupied by tree-sitters protesting the Right View timber sale as well as the buffer left around the tree-sitters when unit 5 was logged this March. BLM's buy-back decision came on the same day the agency admitted they illegally allowed logging in a protected stream side reserve in another part of the Right View sale. "We made a mistake and we are implementing procedures to ensure that we do not repeat it in the future" said Jay Carlson, Swiftwater Field Manager for the Roseburg BLM.

In a letter written to Umpqua Watersheds, Inc., on May 11, 2000, Jay Carlson said, "It is my conclusion that the Bureau of Land Management improperly conducted the commercial thinning in Unit #1 of the Right View timber Sale.... BLM erred in failing to ensure that the thinning was addressed in a valid consultation with NMFS... This situation should not have occurred. The public has a right to expect better from its land management agencies and I want to apologize for the Bureau's error in this matter." On the same day, BLM announced they would not try to log the trees protected by the tree-sitters.

Since the BLM hasn't marked the specific trees that will be bought back from the purchaser, a final agreement with the tree sitters has not yet been reached. The sitters are, however, pleased with BLM's new direction. Peter MacAusland, a friend of the tree-sitters from Eugene, Oregon, said, "We are glad that BLM has decided to buy back the occupied tree and its buffer. Though we lost the forest surrounding the buffer, we have learned a lot and future tree-sits will benefit in our effort to save more forests."

The Right View timber sale had been found in violation of environmental laws by Judge Rothstein in April of 1998 (see below for more details). Roseburg BLM allowed the purchaser to begin logging anyway because Right View was immune from legal challenges by a loophole created in the 1995 Logging Rider. The congressional rider allowed all 1996 federal timber sales to be logged without regard to environmental laws. While Right View was being logged, a landslide occurred in unit 1. In an attempt to stop further damage, the tree-sitters moved into unit 5 in July of 1999.

In spite of danger to citizens protesting the logging, the BLM permitted unit 5 to be logged on March 15, 2000, leaving about a 90' radius buffer of uncut trees around the tree-sit. The BLM hoped that the protesters, sitting more than a hundred feet up an old-growth tree, would then come down, as it was necessary to log the buffer in order to clear the way for construction of a logging road.

The tree-sitters declined to come down. They told the BLM they would leave only if BLM agreed to not cut down the tree they had been sitting in or its buffer. The BLM refused, stating they must honor their contractual obligation and supply Herbert Lumber with the entire contracted volume.

But through a Freedom of Information Act request, Umpqua Watersheds, Inc., discovered that BLM had already sold extra trees to Herbert Lumber in a mysterious "Contract Modification #5" dated July 1999. The modification allowed Herbert to thin an additional four acres attached to Right View unit 1, about a mile west of unit 5 and the tree-sit. When Umpqua Watersheds performed a ground examination of the contract modification, they discovered that Herbert Lumber was allowed to log trees from a protected stream side reserve. This was clearly forbidden by the original Right View contract.

Umpqua Watersheds informed the BLM of this error, and asked if the agency was using the Logging Rider loophole to justify this violation as well. Umpqua Watersheds also pointed out that the contract modification had already allowed BLM to met their contractual obligations. The four-acre addition was 46 thousand board feet while the tree-sit buffer was only 37 thousand board feet.

Today, ten days after notifying BLM of this egregious error, the BLM agreed to not log the tree-sit buffer and purchase it back from Herbert Lumber instead. At the same time, the BLM admitted they had made a mistake in unit 1.

The BLM claims that the mistake they made in unit 1 was not in moving the Right View boundary markers to the stream side, but rather giving Herbert another timber sale to log that just happen to adjoin unit 1. The agency says the add-on to unit 1 was really a different timber sale called "Early Commercial Thinning". But this sale was also found illegal by Judge Rothstein. Unfortunately for BLM, the same loophole that allowed Right View to be logged could not be used on the Right View contract modification. Since neither excuse for logging the protected stream side reserve could be justified, the BLM had to acknowledge their error. The BLM stated today they "have reviewed the procedures that led up to the mistake" and are "implementing a more stringent tracking system that will ensure that timber sale contracts and contract modifications comply with all requirements."

The 46,000 board feet of trees in unit 1 was sold to Herbert for $6,256. The 37,000 board feet of trees in unit 5 will be bought back from Herbert for $22,348.
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May 23 Update: The deal was signed last week, and the tree sitters have left.

Right View Timber Sale
Unit 5 logged around Tree-Sitters

The tree protectors have been occupying the Right View timber sale, near Glide, Oregon, since July 1999. The loggers tried to log it last summer, but stopped because of the tree sitters. But on March 15 Herbert Lumber started cutting the trees around the people sitting in a platform 100' up an old-growth Douglas fir tree. About 14 law enforcement officers and 12 workers appeared in unit 5 early in the morning. The workers finished cutting most of the sale trees in unit 5 by the afternoon of March 15 -- one and a half days to log 32 acres. They worked so fast they did not buck or limb the trees, just dropped them to the ground. A small buffer was left around the tree-sit. Trees to within 40’ of the tree-sit were felled. BLM claims they took all necessary safety precautions to not endanger the lives of the tree sitters, including calculating that blow-down of the isolated trees would not harm the tree-sitters.

The purchaser told the New Review that no more trees in Unit 5 will be cut because all the felling is complete. However, the tree-sitters decline to leave the large old-growth tree they have been protecting. They know it would be quickly cut down because it is in the middle of the right-of-way for the new proposed road that needs to be built to yard the felled trees.

In spite of BLM's assurances, they have put the tree sitters at increased risk of injury from blow-down due to the logging. BLM must resolve this stand-off before anyone is hurt. Trees often blow over on the edge of clearcuts. The tree-sit is tied into surrounding trees by canopy lines. The canopy lines allows the tree-sitters to move around the canopy of the forest, from tree to tree. Since these lines extend web-like throughout the buffer left, any tree blowing into the middle of the buffer has a high chance of being a serious threat.

BLM is now considering putting the road in a different place, on the north edge of the buffer. The BLM is actually considering putting the protesters in more danger by running heavy equipment over the tree roots on the edge of the buffer, and swinging cut logs around the fragile protective buffer. Additionally, the BLM is considering replacing the volume lost from the buffer with other retention trees within unit 5. In unit 5, "green tree retention" trees scattered throughout the unit, were not sold to Herbert in the original contract because they were needed to protect wet areas in the unit, as well as wildlife retention trees. The BLM is actually considering selling these retention trees to Herbert, stripping away important wildlife and wetland protections. This should not happen.

[5/00 Update: BLM has changed their mind. After being caught with their hand in the cookie jar elsewhere in Right View (unit 1), BLM promised the tree sitters they would not do this trade and give permanent protection to their tree-sit/buffer instead. See above for complete story].


Background:

Judge Rothstein ruled in federal court on April 29, 1998, that the Right View Biological Opinion was illegal. BLM has tried to continue logging anyway because of the 1995 Logging Rider loophole. BLM's efforts resulted in a massive landslide in 1998 after they logged units 1 and 2. Up until March 15, the tree protectors have been able to prevent the logging of unit 5.

Because the sale might have killed endangered fish (coho and Umpqua Cutthroat Trout), the ESA required it to have an "incidental take permit", which comes in a Biological Opinion from the National Marine Fisheries Service. NMFS gave this to BLM on June 18, 1997. Included with this permit were numerous other BLM timber sales, like Cobble Creek and Broken Buck. In April of 1998, Judge Rothstein ruled that all of these opinions were illegal because there was no evidence the timber sales complied with the Aquatic Conservation Strategy of the Northwest Forest Plan. Therefore the incidental take permits were invalid.

As a result, BLM had to withdraw Cobble Creek and most of the rest of the sales -- except for Right View. This was because Right View was sheltered from environmental laws by the now famous salvage logging rider. As you recall, congress decreed that every timber sale sold in 1995 and 1996 did not have to comply with environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

BLM blatantly exploited this rider, and continued to log Right View even after it was decreed illegal by a federal judge. In 1998 they clearcut units 1 and 2, and almost immediately the hillside slide away, producing a landslide hundreds of feet wide and hundreds of feet long, dumping tons of sediment into the watersheds of the Wild and Scenic portion of the North Umpqua River.

In unit 5, BLM planned a regeneration harvest, including cutting 5 foot diameter healthy sugar pine trees, even though every healthy sugar pine is needed to fight the imported disease killing them, blister rust. Until today the tree-sitters have prevented the logging of unit 5.

In the second week of March, Elaine Zielinski, director of Oregon/Washington BLM, received hundreds of signatures on a petition asking her to buy back unit 5 of this illegal timber sale. Half of those signatures were from Douglas County citizens. BLM's apparent reaction was to allow the trees to be quickly cut. The state office of BLM needs to hear from all citizens that are outraged this illegal logging happened, even endangering the lives of people. You can call the State office at 503-952-6002, or email the State office at or912mb@or.blm.gov.