Austin sale action alert!

The Forest Service is proposing over 35,000 acres of commercial logging as part of the Austin timber sale in the Malheur National Forest. The Austin sale includes logging of large trees, logging in mature and old forests, logging in streamside riparian forests, and reducing wildlife habitat and connectivity. 

The Austin sale area overlaps with the “humongous fungus”, which may be the largest single living organism, by biomass, on earth. The Forest Service refused to avoid logging in areas that support the fungus, stating only that it’s “unlikely” that logging would harm the fungus– despite evidence that logging compacts and degrades soils, and damages sensitive fungal networks as well as water storage in soils.

Logging in this sale would also harm imperiled fish, such as Columbia River Bull trout and Mid-Columbia River steelhead, which are listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The Forest Service is using an “Emergency Situation Determination” to push the sale through as quickly as possible, and with extremely curtailed public participation. The Emergency Situation Determination allows, among other issues, the Forest Service to do away with the public objection process– which is a crucial step that allows the concerned public to negotiate changes with the Forest Service.

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement does not sufficiently analyze the potential for significant negative impacts of the Austin sale– which includes a 78,200-acre planning area.

The Forest Service is flagrantly ignoring their own rules in order to conduct this large-scale and ecologically destructive logging. They are using loopholes– Forest Plan amendments– to ignore their own Forest Plan standards. The planned Forest Plan amendments would:

• Allow logging of large trees greater than 20″ in diameter
• Allow commercial logging next to streams and within the “Riparian Habitat Conservation Area” buffers that are meant to protect streams from logging
• Allow commercial logging in mature and old forests (“Late and Old Structure” forest) in two types of old growth designations
• Reduce the amount of forest cover required within Wildlife Connectivity corridors
• Reduce forest cover for elk in summer range
• Retain an excessive road system that violates the road density standards
• Violate visual quality standards by clearcutting within sight of a scenic section of highway 26

The Forest Service is clearly targeting the largest trees and the mature and old forests that are left on the landscape. They are skirting protections for large trees– the existing prohibition on logging trees over 20″ in diameter– with no size limit and apparently across the entire project area. They are targeting Grand firs and Douglas firs, and many of the trees logged would be old growth. Even if some of the large trees are not yet 150 years old for old growth status, many wildlife species depend on large tree structure for nesting, denning, and foraging. Further, we have repeatedly found large and old legacy Ponderosa pine trees cut down in numerous sales across the Malheur and other eastside Forests.

A Forest Plan amendment would also allow commercial logging in about half of the designated science-based Riparian Habitat Conservation Area (RHCA) “no logging” buffers.  Logging in stream drainages would likely cause water quality impairment through sedimentation of streams. Logging in the RHCAs would remove forest shading that retains moisture in the stream drainages and would also reduce large wood to form pools for fish. Logging in RHCAs could also increase stream water temperature, harming fish species that require cold water.

Two Forest Plan amendments would allow high intensity commercial logging in Late and Old Structure stands. This would degrade the old growth stands by removing most of the mature trees that would grow into large and old trees, reducing future large live trees, large snags, and large logs.  Most of the Management Indicator wildlife species (MIS) depend on large live trees, large snags, and large logs for suitable habitat.  Removal of most mature trees would also reduce too much forest canopy cover for Pileated woodpecker, Pacific marten, American goshawk  and most of the Primary Cavity Excavator birds.

Another of the Forest Plan amendments would greatly diminish the forest cover within designated wildlife connectivity corridors by logging the corridors.  The wildlife species that migrate (such as Pacific marten and Rocky Mountain elk) or disperse for genetic diversity in their populations, including Sensitive-listed Gray wolves, potential Threatened Canada lynx and Threatened-listed Wolverine need these corridors for survival, particularly given threats from climate change and habitat loss.

Another Forest Plan amendment would violate visual corridor protection standards by clearcutting within sight of highway 26 in a scenic corridor.

There is also the Forest Plan amendment that would reduce satisfactory cover (for thermal protection) in Rocky Mountain elk summer range. The amount of thermal cover would be significantly reduced despite the increasing need for elk and declining Mule deer to have more cooling forest shade in order to survive unprecedented heat waves from climate change.

The last Forest Plan amendment would be used to retain very high road density exceeding Forest Plan road density standards.  The high existing road density would negatively affect elk, Gray wolves, owls, and other wildlife—from poaching and disturbance.

The eight Forest Plan amendments would be used to avoid following the standards, goals, and guidelines of the Forest Plan, wherever it would enable increased logging.  This is flagrant lawlessness.

Please speak up for the irreplaceable and unique forests in the Austin timber sale– even brief comments are helpful! The deadline for comments is March 19^th. You can submit comments electronically to:
https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public//CommentInput?Project=53678.

You can also send comments by mail to: Blue Mountain District Ranger, c/o Bethany Parker, P.O. Box 909, John Day, Oregon 97845