What are some other strategies to save eastside forests?
In many ways, the eastside forests are harder to get a handle on than the westside [of the Cascades]. There hasn’t been a “spotted owl” [indicator species for old growth] on the eastside, [though] there are certainly several [state listed] wildlife species like goshawk, white-headed woodpeckers, black-backed woodpecker, and [pine] marten that are more mature/older forest-dependent. The westside protection [campaign] and the consciousness about old growth has spilled over to the eastside, in the sense that they were cutting it all down like they were [on] the westside. Even though the spotted owl protection did not pertain to the eastside, other than a little bit of the east slope of the Cascades, the owl issue heightened awareness that this was a forest ecosystem and that if the old growth was important on the west side, then older trees in the eastside ecosystem were important, too. That’s led to greater consciousness, with some political pressure. We appealed the Forest Service’s plan to administratively protect old growth on the Winema National Forest because they hadn’t protected enough. I remember one of the foresters in the Chemult Ranger District saying I1We were protecting old growth and you appealed us.” Well, that led to a suit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council where we lost at the [federal] district court and the ninth circuit [court of appeals] because they [the judges] maintained that we didn’t have enough information to show there were violations under
the National Forest Management Act in terms of species viability. There wasn’t enough evidence to show that the agency’s decisions were harming the environment. After that suit the Natural Resources Defense Council threatened to file a suit, which led to the Forest Service adopting what is generally termed screens,^ [which means] some of the biggest and oldest trees were [to be] protected, or at least not cut. Some of the timber sales prepared initially under Section 318 and with the recent salvage rider went ahead. The big old growth ponderosa pine just south of the Klamath Marsh refuge had potential eagle nesting and roosting trees along one mile of the [Silver Lake] highway were cut down under the salvage rider.
Eastern Oregon has been more difficult [to protect] … we’ve also been arguing that, in order to maintain ponderosa forests, that fire needs to be reintroduced into the forest ecosystem. There have also been the efforts, of course, to inventory and describe where ponderosa pine old growth is like on the west side. What may ultimately evolve next will be some sort of a legislative proposal. Whether our [Oregon’s] delegation will support it initially remains to be seen and is somewhat in doubt. I think there’s definitely a continued emphasis and interest on the eastside forests in terms of their habitat values. I don’t know if there’s going to be any one silver bullet. Public
consciousness is ultimately what it’s all about, but there are still issues in terms of some of the wildlife species I’ve mentioned and certainly, in some cases, salmon and rainbow trout.
