Forest Service Head Says Biscuit Salvage Sale Will Happen

By Ley Garnett

(FOLLOWED BY: Environmental Groups Sue To Stop Biscuit Salvage Sale)

PORTLAND, OR 2006-06-08 The top Bush administration official in charge of the US Forest Service says environmentalists have held up timber sales in the Biscuit Fire area in southwest Oregon for four years.

Mark Rey says that's why a timber sale is up for bid Friday for trees in a roadless area of the Biscuit Fire.

He says the government offered environmentalists a compromise two years ago that wasn't accepted. And now he says the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the federal government's position on Biscuit timber sales.

Mark Rey: "So this is a case where a good faith negotiation failed. The plaintiffs thought they could prevail in stopping virtually all harvesting in both the roadless and most of the roaded areas and that's not what the courts decided."

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski says the roadless sale violates a promise made by Mark Rey and the Bush administration.

Rey says he has a different recollection of his discussions with the Governor, who's running for reelection.
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Environmental Groups Sue To Stop Biscuit Salvage Sale

By Ley Garnett, OPB

PORTLAND, OR 2006-06-08 Environmental groups have filed a new lawsuit hoping to stop logging in a roadless area where the Biscuit Fire burned four years ago in southwest Oregon.

On Wednesday a federal judge in Medford will consider their request for a temporary restraining order.

Josh Laughlin is with the Cascadia Wildlands Project.

Josh Laughlin: "We believe that there's significant new information that has arisen that the Forest Service and the Bush Administration has failed to analyze. And by law they need to do that before they can proceed with a project like this."

Laughlin says the new information includes the Donato study by an Oregon State graduate student that says logging in the Biscuit has destroyed natural regeneration of the forest.

The Forest Service says it will go ahead with an auction of the Mike's Gulch timber sale Friday but won't sign a contract until after Wednesday's court hearing.

Wednesday in a separate lawsuit, the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals denied an emergency injunction aimed at preventing timber sales in roadless areas.