The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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U.S. Forest Service can't find a timber buyer and wildlife surveys are costlier than anticipated

Tuesday, August 15, 2000

By GILLIAN FLACCUS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORTLAND -- The U.S. Forest Service said yesterday that it has indefinitely suspended plans to log almost 300 acres of Mount Hood National Forest because it has had trouble finding a buyer for the timber.

In addition, the cost of surveys for certain rare species that depend on the stands of Douglas fir and hemlock is higher than the Forest Service anticipated, said Paul Bryant, Zig Zag forest district ranger.

The agency will suspend the 240-acre Salmon Curves sale and won't log the remaining 50 acres of the Roundup sale, Bryant said.

"We wouldn't be looking at that (sale) again for a few years, if we did at all," he said.

The Forest Service has had trouble finding a buyer to log the Salmon Curves sale ever since it went on the market in 1998, he said.

Bryant said he didn't know how much the surveys for rare species would cost.

Environmental groups called yesterday's decision a victory, citing only one other instance this year when the Forest Service dropped logging plans this far along in the process.

Logging companies likely shied away from the Salmon Curves sale -- originally proposed to improve the appearance of existing clear-cuts seen from Timberline Lodge -- because of tough restrictions on the sale to minimize impact on the nearby Pacific Crest Trail and Salmon River, Bryant said.

"The whole point of the Salmon Curves timber sale was to improve the visual quality from Timberline Lodge, to feather those edges so they didn't look as man-made," he said. "There wasn't a tremendous amount of support for that. When you add in the complexity and the cost, it makes it more difficult for loggers to be able to bid."

Surveys for certain rare species also dampened the Forest Service's plans, said Jeremy Hall, northwest field representative for the Portland-based Oregon Natural Resources Council.

The surveys were mandated by the 9th Circuit Federal Court last year, Hall said, and require the Forest Service to look for species like the red tree vole, the Larch Mountain salamander and an array of terrestrial mollusks, such as jumping slugs.

The agency's decision is a victory for environmental groups who have been fighting the sales for years, Hall said.

"It shows that we're continuing to be effective at changing the priorities of the organization away from timber harvest," he said. "It's relatively unusual for the Forest Service to drop a project that is this far along in the process."

Hall said the Forest Service has dropped a project only once before this year, when it suspended the 400-acre Helldun sale in the Willamette National Forest.

Two other related sales that total about 860 acres -- the Abbott and Road parcels -- will still be logged, Bryant said. The Forest Service will survey those areas for rare species in the next months and modify the sales based on what they find, he said.