Feds lost 9 million on salvage logging project

[montana500]

www.wilderness-sportsman.com


"GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- The U.S. Forest Service lost more than $9 million logging trees burned by the massive 2002 Biscuit fire in southwestern Oregon, a review coordinated by the World Wildlife Fund has found.

The conclusion, derived from an analysis by a retired forest policy expert for the Congressional Research Service, comes on the heels of a study out of Oregon State University that found salvage logging on Biscuit killed most of the seedlings that had generated naturally and increased fire danger in the short term.

"This is a lose-lose, economically and ecologically speaking," said Dominick DellaSala, a forest ecologist for the World Wildlife Fund and lead author of the report, "The Facts and Myths of Post-Fire Management: A Case study of the Biscuit Fire, Southwest Oregon."