JOHN DAY, Ore. (AP) - Few Oregon counties were home to as fierce battles in the forest wars than remote Grant County, pitting environmentalist against loggers, and often winding up in court.

But slowly, things are changing, even in Grant County, where a group of environmentalists, mill owners, timber cutters and government officials recently found some common ground, far outside the confines of the courtroom.

"When I applied for the position it was labeled a hostile community," Stan Benes, who took over as Malheur National Forest supervisor two years ago, told The Oregonian. "It was the most unlikely place for this to happen, but it did."

At issue was the U.S. Forest Service's plan to log part of the forest burned in 2006 by the 14,527-acre Shake Table fire about 20 miles southwest of John Day.

In March, the Forest Service announced plans for the so-called Thorn salvage sale, and it was appealed by four conservation groups - Oregon Wild, the Sierra Club, Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project and Cascadia Wildlands Project - and a timber industry group, the Portland-based American Forest Resource Council.

The groups met May 7 with the Forest Service and within two weeks had a deal that:

• Prevents logging in road-free areas and live old-growth stands in the Shake Table burn while allowing logging of pine trees that pose a hazard.
• Restricts conservation groups from appealing an expedited environmental review of a salvage sale for 2007's Egley fire near Burns, provided it meets certain requirements.
• Allows another long-disputed timber sale to go forward that would provide enough lumber for 500 single-family homes.
• Provides a framework for the parties to work on a future thinning project under the Healthy Forest Restoration Act.

Usually, environmentalists consider salvage logging harmful to forest recovery. Timber interests counter that logging after a fire can speed forest growth while limiting future fires and providing valuable logs for mills that have been shuttered or cut back because of the logging falloff.

None of the parties involved in the Thorn and Egley agreement changed the others' minds. But all sides agreed to give a little to each get something, said Rep. Chuck Burley, R-Bend, who is also a consultant for the timber group involved in the agreement.

Mike Billman, operations forester for Malheur Lumber Co., said his currently closed mill could reopen as early as next week using logs from other sources. If they successfully bid on the Egley sale and other nonsalvage timber sale included in the agreement, Billman said, his and other local mills could get more logs by the end of summer.

Environmentalists consider it a victory to save large roadless areas and other crucial habitat zones. And by allowing some logging they help keep local mills and their workers in place to later participate in thinning projects they consider beneficial to overstocked stands.

"We're not always going to agree. I'm not going to kid anybody," said Tim Lillebo, eastern Oregon field representative for Oregon Wild. But "in the long run it will be a lot better for everyone else if we can work together."

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)