“Thinning” Forests and Thickening Streams: Forest Defense Blues

[Judi Lynn]

April 17, 2014
“Thinning” Forests and Thickening Streams

Forest Defense Blues

by STEPHEN QUIRK and ALEXANDER REID ROSS

Don’t Cut the Jazz!


The Forest Service won a lawsuit this week giving them the chance to sell off the Jazz timber sale—2,000 acres of temperate rainforest and pristine salmon habitat in the Mt. Hood National Forest. The suit was filed by Portland-based grassroots biodiversity group Bark, which argued that the Collowash Watershed, the most geologically unstable region in the National Forest, is too vulnerable for “thinning.”

Among the last remaining late Winter steelhead runs in the country, the Collowash is filled with mostly late-successional conifers like hemlocks, douglas firs, and cedars. The Jazz timber sale was mapped out in 2011, scattering 30 square miles with around 100 units of “selective thins.” By December last year, the FS had checked a mere four units. Decided that no quantitative and substantive evidence existed to compel further surveys, they proceeded with a sale featuring miles of reconstructed logging roads cutting through second growth forest. After scouting and recording ground-level data for the entire area, and logging 600 hours of volunteer hours doing so, Bark isolated several illegal activities and got the sale canceled.

This week’s ruling is a full reversal from last year’s cancellation. Immediately after withdrawing Jazz, the Forest Service attempted to log virtually the entire north slope of Mt. Hood—including what is arguably the most well-loved part of Mt. Hood—the Horseshoe of the Zig-zag ranger district. This became the quickest defeat of any timber sale in Bark’s 14-year history, and the forest supervisor was removed shortly thereafter.

The newly incoming forest supervisor, Lisa Northrup, promptly put the Jazz timber sale back on the map. Once the Jazz was up for cutting again, a Resolution Hearing was called. In front of a packed audience, Northrup began the meeting with a harsh tone, declaring (to paraphrase), ”Before we start, you should know that we’ve read your appeal, and we’re going forward with the timber sale anyway. We disagree with your appeal, but if you want to address any of the points that you made, you’re welcome to do so. It won’t change our minds, but we will try to answer any questions you have… This is not a negotiation.”

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/17/forest-defense-blues/

[chervilant]

1. The greedy among us

are ramping up their Initiatives to amass wealth before it's too late.

Those of us who decry these assaults on our fragile ecosystem would do well to remember that global climate change promises to wreak havoc on a scale previously unknown, and likely to result in the next global extinction event.

[Nihil]

2. That just about sums it up doesn't it?

> (to paraphrase), ”Before we start, you should know that we’ve read your appeal,
> and we’re going forward with the timber sale anyway. We disagree with your appeal,
> but if you want to address any of the points that you made, you’re welcome to do so.
> It won’t change our minds, but we will try to answer any questions you have…
> This is not a negotiation.”

Corporate Republicans in positions of power.

Well Fuck You Too Ms Northrup.