Loggers, enviros warm up to salvage operation
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) - The Bureau of Land Management wants to salvage 40 million board feet of timber blown down in a Jan. 4 windstorm. Environmentalists, who have opposed many salvage sales in the past, are at least partly on aboard.
A 196-page environmental assessment for the Butte Falls blowdown salvage project was issued July 27 for a 30-day public review, with comments due Aug. 26.
"This put about 40 million board feet on the ground, everything from large trees to small trees," said Chris McAlear, the Butte Falls area field manager.
A timber industry group supports the project while a conservationist organization will go along with some of it but has concerns about the rest.
BLM personnel have inspected about 28,000 acres and are proposing salvage on about 6,100 acres to harvest as much as 35 million board feet.
In perspective: It takes about 16,000 board feet to build a 2,000 square-foot home. The 40 million board-foot targeted salvage would build about 1,100 such homes. The BLM Medford district annual target harvest is around 57 million board feet.
Four road salvage sales will offer just over 3 million board feet, mostly Douglas fir with some pine and incense cedar.
The fir will be good for up to five years, but the downed pine will start to deteriorate after a year, officials said.
The BLM also worries about wildfires. A June 30 lightning strike on the downed trees triggered a fire that grew to eight acres before ground crews got to it, said John Bergin, the BLM's forest manager for the resource area.
"It could have been about an acre fire but they couldn't get in there because of the trees across the roads and in the fire area," Bergin said.
"They couldn't get hand crews in there. We had to bring two cats (bulldozers) in. It took five hours to get a cat line around it. Normally, it would have taken about 45 minutes."
Most of the blowdown occurred in the Butte Falls area.
"A lot of the trees are blown down in one direction from the east to the northwest," he said.
The National Weather Service predicted high gusts that day. "We have an antenna out there that's rated 120 mph that snapped," McAlear said.
The BLM wasn't initially aware of the extent of the blowdown, which was covered by a heavy blanket of snow.
"A lot of these acres we're proposing for salvage are being managed for timber production as part of the O&C land," Bergin said, referring to federal land which provides timber receipts to the county as well as the national coffers.
"If we don't salvage them, we would lose all that value. We plan to leave a lot of the broken-off trees and all the green trees that have good crowns," he added.
Trees would be removed by helicopter, tractor, shovel and cable yarding. Salvage logging along the roads to open them up has begun.
If the project goes as planned salvage auctions could begin by the end of September, officials said.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
A 196-page environmental assessment for the Butte Falls blowdown salvage project was issued July 27 for a 30-day public review, with comments due Aug. 26.
"This put about 40 million board feet on the ground, everything from large trees to small trees," said Chris McAlear, the Butte Falls area field manager.
A timber industry group supports the project while a conservationist organization will go along with some of it but has concerns about the rest.
BLM personnel have inspected about 28,000 acres and are proposing salvage on about 6,100 acres to harvest as much as 35 million board feet.
In perspective: It takes about 16,000 board feet to build a 2,000 square-foot home. The 40 million board-foot targeted salvage would build about 1,100 such homes. The BLM Medford district annual target harvest is around 57 million board feet.
Four road salvage sales will offer just over 3 million board feet, mostly Douglas fir with some pine and incense cedar.
The fir will be good for up to five years, but the downed pine will start to deteriorate after a year, officials said.
The BLM also worries about wildfires. A June 30 lightning strike on the downed trees triggered a fire that grew to eight acres before ground crews got to it, said John Bergin, the BLM's forest manager for the resource area.
"It could have been about an acre fire but they couldn't get in there because of the trees across the roads and in the fire area," Bergin said.
"They couldn't get hand crews in there. We had to bring two cats (bulldozers) in. It took five hours to get a cat line around it. Normally, it would have taken about 45 minutes."
Most of the blowdown occurred in the Butte Falls area.
"A lot of the trees are blown down in one direction from the east to the northwest," he said.
The National Weather Service predicted high gusts that day. "We have an antenna out there that's rated 120 mph that snapped," McAlear said.
The BLM wasn't initially aware of the extent of the blowdown, which was covered by a heavy blanket of snow.
"A lot of these acres we're proposing for salvage are being managed for timber production as part of the O&C land," Bergin said, referring to federal land which provides timber receipts to the county as well as the national coffers.
"If we don't salvage them, we would lose all that value. We plan to leave a lot of the broken-off trees and all the green trees that have good crowns," he added.
Trees would be removed by helicopter, tractor, shovel and cable yarding. Salvage logging along the roads to open them up has begun.
If the project goes as planned salvage auctions could begin by the end of September, officials said.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)