In late June, a federal court in San Francisco granted a request to stop the Sims Fire Salvage Sale on the Six Rivers National Forest in northern California. Sims would have cut thousands of huge dead trees (called snags) from a burn area that includes critical habitat for the northern spotted owl and is part of an old-growth forest reserve. The U.S. Forest Service used a Bush Administration rule change, part of its so-called Healthy Forests Initiative, to shield the logging from public challenge.
KS Wild and the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) charge that the Forest Service used a controversial exemption--known as a Categorical Exclusion--to rush through post-fire salvage logging while ignoring evidence that the logging would harm old-growth forests and northern spotted owls in the area. Pointing to studies showing that threatened species continue using burned areas like those proposed for logging, Federal Judge Susan Illston agreed that the project would harm the environment and granted a preliminary injunction until she can fully examine the case on its merits.
The Sims timber sale would cut 6.1 million board feet from only 169 acres, evidence that the Forest Service wants to cut an old-growth snag forest. The average tree to be cut is nearly three feet in diameter, and many are much larger. The Forest Service designated Sierra Pacific Industries as the high bidder for the sale.
Under even the Bush Administration's much-weakened version of regulations governing Categorical Exclusions (an exemption to the usual environmental law), the presence of threatened species or their critical habitat is supposed to bar their use. Clearly, the Forest Service increasingly emphasizes irresponsible logging at the expense of its responsibility to conserve fish and wildlife habitat on public forests.
For more information: 541/488-5789, lesley@kswild.org, or visit www.kswild.org
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TOC for Forest & River News, Summer 2005