landusepbb
02-14-2004, 08:18 AM
http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D80MNAHG2.html
Fish and Wildlife Service expresses concerns over Biscuit fire salvage
02/14/2004
By JEFF BARNARD / Associated Press
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has expressed concerns that salvage logging plans for the area burned by the 2002 Biscuit fire could harm important wilderness habitats and northern spotted owls.
Their comments in the draft environmental impact statement for Biscuit urged keeping timber sales out of inventoried roadless areas, undeveloped portions of the Siskiyou National Forest where the salvage plan calls for logging 12,355 acres to produce 200 million board feet out of the total 518 million board foot harvest.
Fish and Wildlife characterized the roadless areas as "strongholds for populations of threatened and endangered species," adding that the fire did not destroy their potential to being designated wilderness, where logging is not allowed, and serving as important habitat.
Logging within roadless areas would open them to invasion by nonnative species and the spread of a disease that kills Port Orford cedar, Fish and Wildlife said.
After burning 500,000 acres in southwestern Oregon, the Biscuit fire has become the focus of an intense debate over whether it is better to log burned timber to speed up restoration of fish and wildlife habitat, as the Forest Service and timber industry want to do, or leave forests to recover naturally, as environmentalists and some ecologists advocate.
The Siskiyou had originally planned to stay out of roadless areas, avoiding confrontations with environmental groups, but decided to enter them when it raised the harvest level to 518 million board feet based on a report from Oregon State University logging professor John Sessions and others.
Forest Service officials have since said they expect to be sued over the plan to log in roadless areas, which were set aside from logging under a Clinton administration policy the Bush administration does not embrace.
Fish and Wildlife noted that the Forest Service's conclusion that the salvage logging would "not adversely affect" spotted owls or marbled murrelets, both threatened species, was not consistent with Fish and Wildlife's biological opinions, adding consultations would be required under the Endangered Species Act.
Specifically, there is evidence that spotted owls continue to nest and hunt in forests heavily burned by wildfire, Fish and Wildlife said.
However, Fish and Wildlife field supervisor Craig Tuss in Roseburg said there did not appear to be anything that could not be worked out, and enough work has already been done that changes would be unlikely to delay the final environmental impact statement scheduled for April.
"The level of effect is really the important issue here," said Tuss. "The only time an action would be precluded is if there was a jeopardy determination made — that the action would jeopardize the species. That's not what we're talking about here.
"We are saying there's an effect. The forest agrees with that. If there is an adverse effect, it means we need to complete a biological opinion with the forest and do an analysis," Tuss said.
Tom Link, the Biscuit salvage project manager, said he could not comment on any of the 23,000 comments received, but the final environmental impact statement due in April would likely include changes suggested by some of them.
Fish and Wildlife noted that research by U.S. Bureau of Land Management biologists on the nearby Timbered Rock fire had found eight pairs of spotted owls still nesting and hunting for food in areas that burned, compared to 12 pairs before the fire.
"An average of 45 percent of the suitable spotted owl habitat within 0.25 miles burned at these sites, and four sites had more than 70 percent of the site burn severely, and yet those birds continued to occupy the site," Fish and Wildlife wrote.
Fish and Wildlife also suggested leaving many more downed logs on the ground around spotted owl habitat, because research indicates they are important for producing healthy populations of prey for the owls to eat.
The agency also expressed reservations about plans to heavily thin 400-wide swaths of forest to slow the spread of future fires. Instead, Fish and Wildlife suggested taking advantage of natural features of the landscape, such as rock outcroppings, and leaving standing dead trees on ridges that are used as roosts by bats.
Fish and Wildlife Service expresses concerns over Biscuit fire salvage
02/14/2004
By JEFF BARNARD / Associated Press
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has expressed concerns that salvage logging plans for the area burned by the 2002 Biscuit fire could harm important wilderness habitats and northern spotted owls.
Their comments in the draft environmental impact statement for Biscuit urged keeping timber sales out of inventoried roadless areas, undeveloped portions of the Siskiyou National Forest where the salvage plan calls for logging 12,355 acres to produce 200 million board feet out of the total 518 million board foot harvest.
Fish and Wildlife characterized the roadless areas as "strongholds for populations of threatened and endangered species," adding that the fire did not destroy their potential to being designated wilderness, where logging is not allowed, and serving as important habitat.
Logging within roadless areas would open them to invasion by nonnative species and the spread of a disease that kills Port Orford cedar, Fish and Wildlife said.
After burning 500,000 acres in southwestern Oregon, the Biscuit fire has become the focus of an intense debate over whether it is better to log burned timber to speed up restoration of fish and wildlife habitat, as the Forest Service and timber industry want to do, or leave forests to recover naturally, as environmentalists and some ecologists advocate.
The Siskiyou had originally planned to stay out of roadless areas, avoiding confrontations with environmental groups, but decided to enter them when it raised the harvest level to 518 million board feet based on a report from Oregon State University logging professor John Sessions and others.
Forest Service officials have since said they expect to be sued over the plan to log in roadless areas, which were set aside from logging under a Clinton administration policy the Bush administration does not embrace.
Fish and Wildlife noted that the Forest Service's conclusion that the salvage logging would "not adversely affect" spotted owls or marbled murrelets, both threatened species, was not consistent with Fish and Wildlife's biological opinions, adding consultations would be required under the Endangered Species Act.
Specifically, there is evidence that spotted owls continue to nest and hunt in forests heavily burned by wildfire, Fish and Wildlife said.
However, Fish and Wildlife field supervisor Craig Tuss in Roseburg said there did not appear to be anything that could not be worked out, and enough work has already been done that changes would be unlikely to delay the final environmental impact statement scheduled for April.
"The level of effect is really the important issue here," said Tuss. "The only time an action would be precluded is if there was a jeopardy determination made — that the action would jeopardize the species. That's not what we're talking about here.
"We are saying there's an effect. The forest agrees with that. If there is an adverse effect, it means we need to complete a biological opinion with the forest and do an analysis," Tuss said.
Tom Link, the Biscuit salvage project manager, said he could not comment on any of the 23,000 comments received, but the final environmental impact statement due in April would likely include changes suggested by some of them.
Fish and Wildlife noted that research by U.S. Bureau of Land Management biologists on the nearby Timbered Rock fire had found eight pairs of spotted owls still nesting and hunting for food in areas that burned, compared to 12 pairs before the fire.
"An average of 45 percent of the suitable spotted owl habitat within 0.25 miles burned at these sites, and four sites had more than 70 percent of the site burn severely, and yet those birds continued to occupy the site," Fish and Wildlife wrote.
Fish and Wildlife also suggested leaving many more downed logs on the ground around spotted owl habitat, because research indicates they are important for producing healthy populations of prey for the owls to eat.
The agency also expressed reservations about plans to heavily thin 400-wide swaths of forest to slow the spread of future fires. Instead, Fish and Wildlife suggested taking advantage of natural features of the landscape, such as rock outcroppings, and leaving standing dead trees on ridges that are used as roosts by bats.