Timber Sales

"Timber Town's Decline Rivals That of Spotted Owl" (Oct. 23) reminds me of my assignment to Happy Camp in 1949. In those days, a timber sale was limited to $500 by the district ranger, but it was not long before the demand for timber greatly exceeded that restriction, new mills appeared in Happy Camp and the highway connecting those mills to Yreka was under improvement; all of this activity was created by the need for housing for the returning servicemen....

A few years ago, the U.S. Forest Service was getting ready to open up several large stands of old-growth trees here on Kupreanof Island in an attempt to sustain southeast Alaska's beleaguered timber industry. The target was up to 70 million board feet of timber. Much of it would be plucked from remote, roadless forests. Even getting to the trees was going to mean building 25 miles of roads at a cost of more than $6 million. The three tiny sawmills in nearby Kake, where the unemployment rate is 80%, couldn't hope to bid on such a massive and expensive logging operation.

In a major move to protect wildlife in old-growth forests, a judge has halted nine federal timber sales in the Pacific Northwest and ordered further reviews that could stop logging in large sections of Washington, Oregon and California. Ruling in a lawsuit brought by environmental groups, U.S. District Judge William Dwyer in Seattle ordered the U.S.

The first timber likely to be harvested in a "roadless area" of a national forest since the Bush administration eased logging restrictions goes on the auction block Friday. The U.S.

A ban on timber sales that has brought logging ever closer to a standstill across the Northwest was lifted Monday by the federal judge who imposed it three years ago. But the order was not expected to shake loose much--if any--new timber in the short term, as legal challenges await the Clinton Administration's proposal for managing the 24 million acres of federal land in the forests of Washington, Oregon and Northern California that are home to the threatened spotted owl. U.S.

Protection of the threatened northern spotted owl and creation of the Smith River National Recreation Area will eliminate nearly 60% of proposed timber sales next year in the Six Rivers National Forest of northwestern California. The U.S. Forest Service also announced Wednesday that cuts in the amount of commercial timber offered for sale in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest may be even greater.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has for the first time blocked sales of timber from federal land considered vital to the survival of the endangered northern spotted owl, a federal spokesman said. The service blocked 52 timber sales by the Bureau of Land Management--nearly half the agency's annual harvest volume in Oregon. Chris West, vice president of the Northwest Forestry Assn., said the action could be a death blow to many mills in western Oregon, where timber sales from U.S.

After years of ignoring many costs of logging in the nation's 192 million acres of national forests, the government is now admitting that timber sales lost more than $88 million last year. In a report to Congress, obtained Wednesday, the Forest Service for the first time included as expenses the upfront cost of building logging roads on the balance sheet for timber sales.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a huge timber sale in Montana's Bitterroot National Forest, accusing the Forest Service of "electing to take the law into its own hands." The judge's ruling late Tuesday was a blow to the agency, which had attempted to short-circuit the normal procedure, under which citizens and environmental groups are allowed to appeal timber sales, in order to hasten the harvest.

Environmental groups expect the Bush Administration today to approve large timber sales that they say threaten the northern spotted owl and to slash its own plan for protecting the bird in other Northwest forests. An Interior Department spokesman refused Wednesday to discuss the widely rumored actions. The Associated Press said Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.) had confirmed one of the moves but an aide claimed later that he was merely commenting on rumors.

A federal appeals court has temporarily halted a timber sale in the Gallatin National Forest that environmentalists argue would damage wildlife habitat near Yellowstone National Park. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an emergency injunction late Friday, said Tim Bechtold, who represents the three conservation groups that filed the lawsuit in July. The stay halts logging and road building, he said.

It's just above freezing outside, but inside a long makeshift tent dubbed "The Noodle House," bowls of steaming soup and vegetable stir-fry add to the warmth seeping from a small wood stove. On most nights, the dimly lighted tent serves as a cozy gathering place for the several hundred Thai, Cambodian and Laotian pickers who camp out in central Oregon each fall to hunt the elusive and valuable matsutake mushroom, a Japanese delicacy.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a huge timber sale in Montana's Bitterroot National Forest, accusing the Forest Service of "electing to take the law into its own hands." The judge's ruling late Tuesday was a blow to the agency, which had attempted to short-circuit the normal procedure, under which citizens and environmental groups are allowed to appeal timber sales, in order to hasten the harvest.

Logging on thousands of acres in the Pacific Northwest was halted Thursday by a federal appeals court, which upheld a requirement for comprehensive new studies to protect fish from the potentially devastating effects of timber harvests. The ruling from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is one of the strongest blows dealt by the Endangered Species Act on logging in recent years.

Counties in California's forested northern reaches, where stagnant economies have given people little to cheer about in recent years, are celebrating an unaccustomed piece of good news. Congress gave final approval this month to legislation changing a nearly century-old formula that ties together school funding and federal timber sales in rural counties that have large tracts of national forest land.

For nearly a century there has been a direct connection between how many trees are chopped down in federal forests and how much money is spent on students in surrounding school districts. As timber cutting has dramatically declined in recent years, that formula has wreaked havoc on rural school budgets and sparked a passionate debate on whether logs and lesson plans should have anything to do with each other. Bailout legislation passed this month in the U.S.

Counties in California's forested northern reaches, where stagnant economies have given people little to cheer about in recent years, are celebrating an unaccustomed piece of good news. Congress gave final approval this month to legislation changing a nearly century-old formula that ties together school funding and federal timber sales in rural counties that have large tracts of national forest land.

In a final report on its plan to protect the endangered spotted owl, the Clinton Administration on Wednesday proposed reducing sales of timber from the Northwest's forests by a further 10% and almost doubled its estimates of jobs that will be lost as a result. In a final environmental impact statement, the Administration said it will propose further limits on logging alongside stream banks on federal lands--a move cheered by environmentalists.

While it is heartening to see the courts enforcing federal environmental laws on our national forests ("Judge Freezes 9 Timber Sales in Northwest," Aug. 4), most of the time existing laws are not enough to stop the destruction of ancient forests on our public lands. The U.S. Forest Service is allowing timber corporations to cut down more than 500,000 acres each year on national forests, all paid for by U.S. taxpayers. Our national forests will never be safe until we stop this subsidized logging program.

"New Approaches on the Forests" (editorial, Aug. 2) noted that the U.S. Forest Service predicts that its timber sales program will cost $200 million next fiscal year. Additional expenses include logging road construction and maintenance, timber research, restoration costs and more. The Forest Service funnels the vast majority of timber sales revenue into off-budget slush funds to pay for more logging. Out of every $10 that Congress appropriates to cover expenses incurred by allowing timber corporations to chop down our public forests, less than $1 goes back to taxpayers' pockets.