This is a follow-up on the comments sent to the Forest Service regarding the 2700-acre logging proposal in the Como to Lost Horse area.
In case you didn’t see it in the paper, the Forest Service has put a stop the appeal process. They have been working on this phase for some time, but all is not lost. When the comment period comes up on future sales, they still have to honor the comment period.
When you send in your comments on a given sale, add every problem you find with the sale so it is just like an appeal of a timber sale, only the name has been changed to Forest Health Project. After you state your concerns, hit on the Endangered Animals, elk and deer cover, lynx habitat, wolverine, fisher, marten, squirrel cones for feed and squirrels plant more trees than the Forest Service. State the Endangered Goshawk. If there is a stream in the sale use the Endangered Bull Trout and Cutthroat Trout, as the streams are nurseries for the little trout that will drift down to the river when they get a little size.
Don’t forget the erosion that is caused by modern logging. With the new logging methods, the cut areas are very nearly clearcuts and instead of making jobs there has been less and less need for loggers. For example, the Tree Harvester Machines have put 75% of the fallers out of work.
I want to clarify some of the words the Forest Service uses for their timber sales. One is Over-story Removal. This means if there is some larger tees they cut them all the smaller tees. The next is Pre-Commercial Thinning. This means they take everything the loggers will take, as small as they want. The last is a real good one. It’s called Open Space Enhancement!
Floyd Wood
Corvallis