South Umpqua Logging
BLM proposes first old-growth clearcut sale in years.Believing they can once again clearcut the nesting habitat for the northern spotted owl, Roseburg BLM is now targeting the Days Creek watershed for 236 acres of clearcutting in mature and old growth forests on public BLM lands. Write to BLM to tell them what you think of this project on your public lands. See talking points and address below.
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Roseburg BLM is proposing to clearcut, leaving as few as 6 trees per acre, 236 acres. Half of the clearcuts are proposed off of Woods Creek Road, just one mile north of the town of Days Creek. The other units are east of Days Creek, in a small but important roadless area in Coffee Creek. Roseburg BLM is also proposing to thin almost 1,500 acres of old clearcuts -- dense, overstocked, fire-prone tree plantations. This is a GOOD thing. Thinning will produce 15 mmbf (3,000 log truck loads) to provide local jobs and wood products. But because of twisted logic, Roseburg BLM says they must also clearcut beautiful, old, native forests and convert them into new tree-plantations. Their plan is to never allow these forests grow old again, and to continually milk them for industry profits. |
Above: Unit 25G, on the edge of Coffee Creek roadless area. BLM wants to clearcut this public forest. |
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The people in the Days Creek area frequently use these beautiful forests for recreation and family gatherings. There is even a small, beautiful grave site in one of the units to be clearcut. We asked the BLM to protect this site, but they refused. Roseburg BLM insists that the law (the 1932 O&C Act) requires clearcutting of old growth, because clearcutting is their definition of "sustainable forestry". The O&C act requires the BLM to manage our lands by "protecting watersheds, regulating stream flow, and contributing to the economic stability of local communities and industries, and providing recreational facilities", and BLM claims that clearcutting old growth is the way to do this. Someone needs to tell the BLM this is twisted logic. |
Written on grave: “Carmella. 5-5-06 to 7-6-07. Little One” |
Write to BLM:
Tell them what you think.Write to:
Ralph Thomas
Field Manager, South River Field Office
Roseburg District, BLM
777 N.W. Garden Valley Blvd
Roseburg, Oregon 97471Or, Email your comments to:
OR100MB@or.blm.govComments are best due by August 7, 2008, but you can write to BLM anytime. Some talking points:
The northern spotted owl is more endangerd than ever. Recent studies show populations in the Roseburg District have significantly declined in recent years. Clearcutting spotted owl nesting habitat in this project, leaving only 6 trees per acre, will harm at least the three pairs of spotted owls that will have part of their home range (dining room) clearcut. For one pair, the Stinger Gulch pair, the BLM is logging so much of their home range, the BLM expects the owls could "suffer mortality from starvation, predation, or exposure in attempting to relocate elsewhere."
The BLM reasons that starving spotted owls now is OK because the old clearcuts they are thinning now will be a home for spotted owls in about a hundred years. Tell the BLM what you feel about the spotted owls trying to survive now, in our public forests now. If the species doesn't even survive now, old forests in 100 years won't help them.
Tell the BLM to leave the old growth alone. There's not much left and all the critters that depend on the diverse, old forests need it. Public forests is all they have left. Tell the BLM to just log in the forests that have already been clearcut (40 to 60 years ago), and replanted to be thick, fiber farms. Some of these old clearcuts were set aside as reserves for the spotted owl (called Late Successional Reserves, LSRs). About half of the reserves set aside under the Northwest Forest Plan were already clearcut before they were reserved for the spotted owl. While it is good that the BLM is thinning these for future owl habitat, the existing owl habitat must not be clearcut. This doesn't make sense.
Please comment as soon as you can. Email your comments to OR100MB@or.blm.gov. All the animals in the forest will thank you for your work.
