An agreement was reached between Roseburg Forest Products and the Forest Service to trade the controversial First and Last timber sales for four million board feet of timber from stands that are already partially logged. All indications are that cutting has ended on the controversial sales, but not all conservationists endorse the swap, condemning the deal's noncompliance with the Northwest Forest Plan or any environmental laws. It was discouraging that extensive citizen action was needed to speed the bureaucratic measures taken to stop the cutting of thousand year old trees and preserve the most precious stands of old-growth and critical fish habitat remaining in the Tiller district. A deal was delayed for several weeks despite assurances from the White House that every effort was being made to complete the swap. The deal may set a precedent for "fixing" other upcoming bad sales in the Northwest, but conservationists are calling for buying back the sales rather than swapping areas that will be logged without any environmental controls. Particular attention will remain focused on the Umpqua as Abe's Wren, Cowboy, Nita and South Nita, four other 318 old-growth sales whose release was forced under the salvage rider, remain threatened.
Timber swap signed for First and Last in the Umpqua
On Sunday afternoon, forest dis-Service officials and Allyn Ford of Roseburg Forest Products signed a deal entailing the substitution of shelterwood units on matrix lands for two old growth sales in roadless areas on the Tiller R.D. of the Umpqua National Forest. All indications are that cutting has ended on the controversial First and Last sales. The base camp maintained by forest defenders at Cool Water campground was cleaned out and although they remain vigilant, CFD, Earth First! and the other direct-action groups have faded back into the trees. During the three week campaign, only eight were arrested (four for simple trespassing on public lands). But the constant presence kept a massive law enforcement force on duty after over 16 square miles of forest was put under a federal closure, with closures on Rd 2719 expanding on several occasions. Numerous skirmishes with loggers and law enforcement kept the latter on their toes and the pressure on politicians back East to move on authorizing the deal. Tri-pods, auto blockades, and the old "wait, I've dropped my earring on the road" trick were among the nonviolent direct action tactics employed during the campaign.Cascadia Forest Defenders, and the other direct-action groups involved in the Umpqua, do not endorse the swap, and condemn the deal's noncompliance with even the dubious Clinton Forest Plan. The only way these lands will be saved and others restored is through the end of commercial resource extraction on public lands. Timber, mining, grazing, gas and oil drilling, along with agricultural and industrial abuse of our rivers, have brought us to the crisis the earth's native ecosystems face today. These activities must cease. Regarding the Umpqua sales, it is nevertheless encouraging that citizen action influenced the speed with which bureaucratic measures were taken to stop the cutting and preserve the most precious stands of old-growth and critical fish habitat remaining in the Tiller district. The deal may set a precedent for "fixing" upcoming, egregious sales in Cascadia in a manner that continues to rip sufficiency language timber from lands that cannot afford anything less than full restoration. Like the Warner Creek and Hoxie-Griffin campaigns, however, the Umpqua spring actions, with the local Umpqua Watersheds group, WALL activists, CFD, and varied direct-action affinity groups from across Cascadia, serves as a positive model for future collaboration, as well as a campaign to be critiqued and learned from.
Attention will remain focused on the Umpqua as Abe's Wren, Cowboy, Nita and South Nita, four other 318 old-growth sales whose release was forced under the salvage rider, remain threatened. Abe's Wren has already been released, although the contract holder, D.R. Johnson, and the forest Dis-service have reportedly both indicated an interest in a swap for less environmentally sensitive timber. The latter four's fate will not be decided until their legality is ruled upon in Dwyer's court in early May. Of special concern is, now that the cutting has stopped, will the closure be lifted and the public be allowed back on public land? Several Umpqua BLM sales and new Option 9 sales also exemplify the disastrous consequences of the salvage rider.
Dateline -- Washington, DC (4/8/96) The U.S. Forest Service announced today that a timber sale for the Umpqua National Forest in Oregon was being moved from old-growth forest to a less sensitive area under an agreement with the Scott Paper Co.
Agriculture Undersecretary James Lyons said the agency would seek additional voluntary agreements to protect sensitive lands in the Umpqua and Siskiyou National Forests.
The agreement with Scott Timber involves a sale of 9.8 million board feet in the 'First-and-Last Tract.' By shifting the sale, Umpqua Forest Service Supervisor Don Otsby said, there will be less impact on habitat for coho salmon, cutthroat trout, and northern spotted owl.
END wlg
Word arrived at 5pm today has that a deal has FINALLY been signed and sealed to trade replacement volume for the First/Last timber sale. Monday, Roseburg Forest Products will log in the replaced volume, the Patriot sale.
The trade will be removing the overstory of a previously entered harvest unit, a shelterwood. No new roads will be built and it is in the matrix. Whether we can keep all future traded volume in the matrix is a question not yet answered.
The huge forest closure on the Umpqua National Forest will remain in effect indefinitely, perhaps until the logs from the two weeks of logging damage are yarded out. RFP say they might have to log a tree or two more to faciliate yarding operations.
All in all, this is good news for the Boulder Creek/Umpqua watershed, and for the ancient trees growing there. I feel this victory is the result of pressure from all of us, and especially from those hard working, dedicated protesters on the ground and behind computers. As a resident of the Umpqua watershed, I would like to personally thank all the invaluable help that flowed into us from surrounding watershed activists.
What is a victory for the Boulder Creek/Umpqua watershed is not necessarily a victory for our entire forests. These sales were illegal to begin with, and Roseburg Forest Products has no right to them or the traded volume. It hurts to trade for old-growth for old growth. This trading business could come back to bite us.
francis
At 6:30 tonight I received a call from Cheryl Walters at the UNF Supervisor's Office. Her official statement was: "Negotions are continuing between the the Forest Service and the purchaer Scott timber. We expect a signed agreement in the morning." (Scott timber is the purchasing arm of Roseburg Forest Products.)
I asked her what the problem was - I thought they had previously said it was all worked out. She said she "couldn't say, she wasn't in the room".
This morning, protesters witnessed a Roseburg Forest Products truck, with two company hired security officers, drive into the closure. This was followed soon after by a Forest Service police car escorting a RFP van with loggers, who continued cutting the sales today.
In spite of replacement volume being identified by the Forest Service and reviewed by Roseburg Forest Products, cutting continued today in the First/Last timber sales. The Forest Service told me that cutting is likely to continue tomorrow. Next week is an unknown factor.
Protesters continue to occupy the area near the North closure. Yesterday a "Save Our Ancient Forests" poster was hung on the locked gate. However, before the protesters were out of site, the guards removed and crumpled the poster. The Forest Service had previously displayed on the gates numerous Roseburg Forest Products's signs designating their authority.
Protesters continue to visit the north gate of the huge Umpqua National Forest closure. Today's visitors included people from Los Angeles, Portland, and Salem.
The Forest Service guards are likewise from far and wide. Today's guards included people from Freemont, Willamette, and Malhure National Forest. The guards would only give us the company line: "We are to protect your safety". If we asked them how they felt, they reply they are not going to discuss it.
Roseburg Forest Products continued to cut in First/Last today, and probably will again tomorrow, and so forth until the last minute.
This morning I talked with Brenda Woodard, Contracting Officer for the First/Last timber sales about Allyn Ford's reasons for continuing cutting when negotiations are so close. Ford says that the logging rider requires him to have all the timber cut by September, so he can't wait.
However, Woodard says that Roseburg Forest Products has a three year contract, and they are not required to be complete with First/Last or it's replaced volume until March 31, 1999. What happens in September is the logging rider's protections against cutting illegal sales ends. Therefore, if there is any timber uncut that does not comply with environmental laws, an injunction could happen.
Since First/Last are illegal sales, a Dwyer court injunction could stop cutting in September if anything is left. If traded volume is legal volume.... then I'm not sure what would happen.
A SCLDF memo dated March 29th says: "Judge Dwyer issued an order on our renoted motions challenging the First and Last timber sales for violating Section 318. Judge Dwyer acknowledged that there is no dispute that the two sales violate Section 318, but refused to decide whether that fact means they are unauthorized under Section 2001(k), because that issue is before the Ninth Circuit." A court hearing will be argued in the Ninth Circuit on May 9th.
It was reported that at least five fellers, maybe more, were brought in by RFP today. Don Ostby, forest supervisor, indicated that cutting would continue tomorrow. As far as we know, cutting could continue indefinitely.
A "trade for substitute volume" has been discussed with the purchaser, Allyn Ford of Roseburg Forest Products, but he has not yet indicated whether or not he will accept it. The Forest Service is not releasing the details of the trade at this time.
We are dismayed that specific substitute volume has been discussed with RFP, and they refuse to demonstrate good faith by halting logging on the First/Last timber sales. Since the life of his contract is for three years, he should be in no hurry.
Since details of Senator's Glickman's authorization for trading rider sales has not yet been released, (it is supposed to appear in federal registry on Wednesday), we do not know in what ways, if any, the traded volume will comply with the NW Forest Plan (option 9).
The Forest Service continues to maintain a very large public closure around the cutting area, bring in enforcement personnel region wide. Today I met police officers from Wenatchee National Forest and Colville National Forest. Many government vehicles are needed inside the closure every day. (I watched about 8 go in one side, the quite side, this morning). With the help of a backhoe, big blue permanent locked gates have been erected by the Forest Service on both sides of the closure.
Protesters are continuing their activities. A group of concerned citizens met outside the Supervisors Office this morning in Roseburg, but the Forest Service locked the office and refused to let them in. Requests to view the closed area escorted by government personnel, continue to be denied, even if no work activity is taking place.
Abes Wren, a logging rider 318 timber sale within the same forest closure as First/Last, was released Friday. Trade talks under Glickman's language are slated to begin soon for this sale.
francis
Hoping to stall logging on the First/Last timber sale, protesters blocked road 2719 Friday morning from 5:30 am to 11:30 am. Whether these sales are stopped by the courts or negotiations or protests, every hour that cutting is stalled, could mean very ancient trees are preserved for future generations.
About fifteen protesters were at the intersection of road 27 and 2719 in the Umpqua National Forest, gathered around a person perched on top of a 30 foot pole tripod placed in the middle of the road. No vehicles were able to pass the point without toppling the tripod and endangering the life of the person sitting on top.
A yellow RFP truck took a longer route around the road blockade, and was eventually able to reach the logging site to cut trees in the First timber sale. It is reported that clearcutting has begun in unit 5, the unit where a tree was calculated to have an age of 1044 years.
Up to 15 Forest Service police and service trucks gathered at the intersection, on either side of the protesters blockade, along with a County Sheriff car. New blue uniforms were present with the brown of the County Sheriff and green of Forest Service. Forest Service personnel unofficially told protesters that the blue uniforms represented private security hired by Roseburg Forest Products.
RFP is being allowed to protect what they now consider their private property, the trees of the First/Last ecosystem, by participating in locking out the public. The National Marine Fisheries Service has testified however, the clearcutting of these trees will so damage the ecosystem that the public waterways harboring the endangered Cutthroat and Coho salmon habitat will be severely impacted. Additionally, public forests which contain a previously unfragmented old growth ecosystem, is the site of the First/Last timber sales. Public funds will be needed for restoration of the watershed after it is chopped up, as in other watersheds in the Tiller Ranger District.
The salvage rider mandates that RFP be awarded these sales at the original contract price, $343/mbf for First, and $379/mbf for Last. Original contract terms will escalate these prices some what, but final prices do not come close to today's market value or it's true value, and will not touch the public's cost of protecting RFP and later restoring the watershed.
Yesterday I sensed there had been a revolution. As I traveled the roads of my home forest, barricades and road closure signs are everywhere. I have no right to be here any longer. I'm not even allowed to work in this area. Roseburg Forest Products has won this territory, for now. A huge area of the forest has been closed to the public, either by section closures or road closures. Roseburg Forest Products has the power to control their new territory - Umpqua National Forest personnel, and Douglas County Sheriffs.
The Umpqua National Forest has complied with Roseburg Forest Products request to post the company signs at their new borders. The signs state that the public's exclusion from their land is for safety purposes, but must be enforced night and day, whether there are loggers in the area or not, whether a person wants to go near a clearcut or not, even if a person just wants to use the main road, and not drive 3 hours to go around. Since RFP wants every access road to the First/Last timber sales cut off, the "Logging area" extends for miles in all directions past the actual sale. The signs read, in part:
"WARNING NOTICE. You have entered a Roseburg Forest Products Co. Logging area.... you must follow our procedures"
"If you or your group desire to view the work area, the company or crew will arrange to provide a tour; insuring that everyone remains safe. We want to maintain an open relationship with everyone."
"If you interfere with [our] ability to work, legal action, in the form of a civil suit, may be brought against you... Workers have been instructed to make a written and photographic record of anyone on the job site."
If anyone wants to take them up on their offer of a "tour", complete with your own tourist picture, you can call RFP at: 679-3311. Ask to see something other then the one shelterwood unit - any of the others would do.
Forest Service and County personnel are having to maintain three different road blocks, locking out the public, to facilitate Roseburg Forest Products clearcutting in habitat specified by NMFS as endangering the Umpqua Cutthroat Trout and Coho Salmon. Each road block has several cars and personnel - sometimes up to 15 (more often 3) at each block. However, they are not doing all the enforcement work, RFP is helping them out a little, and rumor has it, more so in the future. Yellow RFP trucks have been seen cruising around their domain, for the sole purpose of protecting their land granted to them by the revolutionary US congress, through the clearcut logging law.
And they are logging it. Today was the fourth day of logging on the First/Last timber sales. It's so hard to believe it is actually happening. These last intact stands are being fragmented and roaded. New road survey stakes are everywhere. Dwyer deemed sales like these illegal in 1990. We had won back then - we had saved an important ecosystem. Little did we know that we had given it only six more years of life, and that a horrific, uncaring, callous congress and president would sign these lands over to RFP on a rider.
How dare they take this land and wildlife away from all future generations. How dare they cut any living thing that is 1000 years old. More importantly, they are taking a 10,000 year old ecosystem - they are eroding and compressing 5,000 year old soil. They are taking a rare bank of biodiversity and genetic history.
Yesterday 8 people were arrested for trying to stop the logging or crossing over into RFP territory. All were out of jail by this afternoon.
During the action in the morning, a goose landed on a rock overlooking a blocked road. It remained watching the activities throughout the morning. At night, when our souls were bruised by knowing that it was just another day of more logging in spite of our efforts, we were able to look up into the cold clear sky, and see a phenomenal sight - a comet streaking across the otherwise familiar sky - streaking so fast, yet looking so still.
Environmentalists protesting the "First" and "Last" timber sales in the Tiller Ranger District spent the night in near-freezing temperatures without shelter when the Forest Service applied a sudden closure to 17 square miles of the area and prevented protesters' vehicles from entering and evacuating their friends. All activists have now emerged safely. Members of the local media were also prevented from accessing the logging site until pressure from reporters forced a lifting of the news blackout Friday afternoon. Media people may now be "escorted" into selected areas by Forest Service personnel.
Cutting on the "First" sale began at mid-day on Thursday, and continued through Friday. Cutting has also reportedly begun on the "Last" sale early Friday morning. Environmentalists have moved into the area vowing to defend this critical habitat which is designated by the Forest Service as Ecologically Significant Old Growth (ESOG). These sales are also in roadless Key Watersheds in Late Successional Reserves. On Oct. 23, 1995, the National Marine Fisheries Service testified that these sales were in critical habitat areas for the endangered Umpqua searun cutthroat trout and the threatened Coho salmon.
These are the types of areas that would be protected under the Northwest Forest Plan. The "Salvage" Rider now suspends all environmental laws that would protect the pristine, healthy ancient forests found in the First and Last timber sales.
Negotiations to offer substitute timber to the purchaser, Roseburg Forest Products, are ongoing. Don Ostby, supervisor of the Umpqua National Forest, told a representative of Umpqua Watersheds Thursday that he had "no legal framework" at that time to offer exchange timber from less environmentally sensitive areas. Jim Lyons, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, told Umpqua Watersheds that any policy changes needed to allow this substitution would soon be implemented by the administration. Allyn Ford, Executive Vice President of Roseburg Forest Products, said Thursday that he is willing to trade for equal volume but has had no specific offers from the Forest Service. Ken Carloni, of Umpqua Watersheds, said "It would be a national tragedy to let 1000 year old trees be logged when all sides are in agreement that volume substitution would be a more acceptable solution to this immediate crisis."
Forest defenders are camped at Cool Water Camp. Take I-5 exit 124 and follow signs to Hwy 138 (Crater Lake). Proceed 18 miles to the town of Glide. Turn right on Little River Road and proceed 27 miles to Cool Water. Bring firewood if you can.
Spend spring break on the beautiful South Umpqua and defend your natural heritage!
Cutting began today on the 'Last' Timber Sale, the sister sale to the 'First' Timber Sale. 'Last' cuts into the roadless area from the North, and 'First' cuts into the roadless area from the south, fragmenting the last remaining intact ecosystem in the Tiller Ranger District of the Umpqua National Forest.
On 3/21 the Forest Service enlarged the restricted area to now cover a large part of the district, cutting off the main access road between the two sales, and the main north/south forest road. Due to snow and heavy downfall over the roads from a hard winter, no other access can be use by the public to travel north/south through the forest. The north road closure is at 2719 and 617. The south closure is at 2719 and 2741. To get from the north closure at the Last timber sale, to the south closure at the First timber sale, a protester now has to drive from Glide to Roseburg to Canyonville and then to Tiller, a 2 hour trip. From the Coolwater camp, near the north closure, it used to take 20 minutes to get to the First timber sale.
Today I stood vigil with others over the destruction of the First timber sale, behind the southern closure. The fellers arrived just after dawn and were given the grand privilege of entering the closure to cut the ancient forests. By 1:00 in the afternoon the fellers have gone home, but 6 government and county vehicles remain, making sure this public land is closed to all others.
They know we are here for the long haul. A truck with four porta potties came in, two for the south closure and two for the north closure, all within the closed area. If we want the privilege of using a porta pottie, we will have to get arrested to do it.
A tow truck came in Friday also. The green forest service paddy wagon, waiting to take away the arresties, was towed out (empty).
This huge closure of public lands is for the purpose of expediting an illegal timber sale (it even violated the 318 laws, but was withdrawn by the FS before Dwyer could rule on it). I am outraged when I see 6 government vehicles on EACH end of the closure, protecting a corporation like Roseburg Forest Products. When the snow melts (soon), they are going to have to staff two additional sites. How much can this cost? Who is paying for this? It must be the fish.
In the First Timber Sale, the cutters are in one of the units on a road. We don't know where they are in the Last Timber Sale. Both sales will require extensive road building to truck the logs out. We don't know if there is road building equipment already inside the closure.
3/23: Saturday morning no loggers came in - looks like the trees have a reprieve for the weekend. I hear Monday is a happening day.
Francis