All of the following timber sales are currently stopped.



Luke Timber Sale

This is a proposed FY 2000 sale still in scoping, with no firm proposal public. However, firm blue lines are already painted on trees, the color of death. Also, clear markings designate the path of some of the new logging roads they plan to build (pink flagging in picture on right). The only thing we know for sure about this proposal is that it will log in about 334 acres of old-growth forests for the benefit of the timber industry. It is located in the south part of the Tiller Ranger District, in some beautiful mixed conifer and hardwood forests. Oak trees can be seen in the understory of this rocky ridgetop (picture on left) that will be bulldozed for a new logging road. Large, old Douglas fir, pine, and cedar trees have managed, through the centuries, to send their roots deep below the rocky ground. It is clear that once these trees are logged and sold, we can never do as good a job as Mother Nature in re-establishing an ancient forest again.


Updated 10/99

Summit Timber Sale

This is a proposed FY 2000 sale still in scoping, with no firm public proposal. It is located near Drew, and appears to log adjacent to people's residences. Though the project proposes to do restoration of meadows and hardwood stands (meadow in picture is next to unit E), they have to log big old trees to pay for it because only the timber sale component of the Northwest Forest Plan is fully funded. Tiller proposes to log 823 acres of old-growth forests, and sell 7.5 mmbf (over 1,500 log truck loads). Over one mile of new logging roads will have to be built.


Updated 9/99

Zinc Timber Sale

This is a FY 1999 sale. The public comment period for Zinc is over, but a final decision has not been made public. The sale is held up by the Survey and Manage lawsuit because the Forest Service failed to survey for all rare plants and wildlife. 465 acres will be logged. Some is thinning in young stands, but there is plenty of liquidation of big, old-growth forests with clearcutting (like the tree on the right in unit H of Zinc). Though the thinning is supposed to be for "forest health" (to speed the growth of remaining trees), almost every tree cut will be sold to industry even though these old clearcuts need standing dead trees to help bring back the woodpeckers and other cavity nesters which eat insects and can really help the forest's health. The Forest Service even has to build a new logging road right through a wetland in order to sell the thinned trees. As long as forest health takes a back seat to making profits, forest health will continue to decline. The Forest Service proposed several logging alternatives, as legally required. However, even before the proposal was public, they had completely marked the sale with roads and the blue lines of death, indicating they had already decided on the heaviest logging alternative, before they even asked us what we thought.


Updated 9/99

Spam Timber Sale

This is a FY 1999 sale. These poor forests in the Spam timber sale (near Johnny Springs) have been picked to death. Some have had two or even three previous sales. Unit B (left) was just logged last year, in the Johnny timber sale. Even before Johnny was logged, the Forest Service had proposed plans to log it more. In each logging the Forest Service says they plan to restore forest health by thinning. But by now, almost every tree left in unit B has either had tractors driven over its roots, or had its bark skinned off by falling trees. Logging slash is everywhere, increasing fire danger. Unit C (right) is an ancient forest that has not been logged before, but Spam will now start it on the same decline as unit B. The public comments for Spam are over, but there has been so final decision, and the sale is held up by the Survey and Manage lawsuit.


5/01 Update: Stopped by the Rothstein ruling.

Updated 10/99

Wildcat Timber Sale

Wildcat is a 1998 timber sale. We appealed it and lost. Currently the sale is stalled because Judge Dwyer found the Forest Service neglected to survey for rare species. Also, on 9/30/99, Judge Rothstein found the Forest Service didn't do enough to protect endangered fish. With two court rulings against it, the future of Wildcat is dim (for the industry), or bright (for the forest).

We objected to Wildcat because it sells trees from a spotted owl reserve (LSR). To facilitate selling trees in the reserve to industry, a new road must be built. The Forest Service promised us that no trees over 20" across would be cut in the LSR unit. But we found many trees over 20" marked with blue paint (see picture on left). When we appealed this apparent lie, the Forest Service told us those trees were not in the unit, they were next to the unit in the right-of-way of the new proposed logging road, and they had simply neglected to mentioned them in the analysis.

Even though this reserve was logged before it became a reserve, and thus lacks natural amounts of down wood and standing dead trees (needed for a healthy reserve to facilitate woodpeckers and other cavity nesters), the Forest Service refused to consider any options to building the road to sell the thinned trees. Liquidating some of the largest trees in the reserve for a logging road, and not telling the public the true size of trees to be sold, is a dishonest approach to managing our spotted owl reserve. Selling forests for profit is still the primary goal of the Forest Service -- not preservation of the forest for our wildlife.