U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden plans to ask the U.S. Forest Service
to cancel one of the most contentious timber sales in
the Mount Hood National Forest.
Environmentalists have been protesting the Eagle timber
sales for more than three years. Some of the more than
1,000 acres have already been cut, but protesters are
scrambling to save the remaining 500-plus acres of federal
timber in a pristine roadless area bordering the Salmon-Huckleberry
Wilderness Area. Wyden, who had steered clear of the
debate, now seems to agree. He's requested to meet with
Gary Larson, the Forest Supervisor for Mount Hood National
Forest on Aug. 24. Plans for the meeting came together
quickly last week before Congress adjourned for the
August recess, and the details have not yet been worked
out. In addition to Wyden, representatives for U.S.
Reps. David Wu and Earl Blumenauer will attend.
"Ron has taken a position that he is going to resolve
this," Wyden aide Josh Kardon says. "Clearly the objective
is to cancel the sale."
Kardon says a couple of factors are prompting his boss.
First, there has been broad public criticism of the
sales, which are in the Clackamas River watershed, about
45 minutes from Portland. Lake Oswego, West Linn and
Oregon City get their water supply from the Clackamas,
and city officials are worried about the effects of
logging upstream.
In addition, the Cascadia Forest Alliance and Oregon
Natural Resources Council charge that the Forest Service
has not done the species surveys required by the Northwest
Forest Plan and that logging will permanently damage
habitat before scientists know what plants and animals
are affected. This is the same charge leveled at the
Forest Service in a lawsuit brought by 13 environmental
groups who are opposing sales in Oregon, Washington
and California. Last week U.S. Circuit Judge William
Dwyer agreed with the environmentalists and ruled that
the Forest Service had been "arbitrary and contrary"
in implementing the plan.
The Eagle sales were not included in that lawsuit.
Private citizens do not have the right to sue over environmental
violations with the Eagle sales because they were awarded
during the two-year period covered by the 1995 salvage
rider, which granted the Forest Service temporary immunity
from lawsuits on sales. Left with no other recourse,
ground-level activists have been blocking logging with
a 100-day tree sit and a road blockade that has been
up since mid-July. Citizens, meanwhile, have been bombarding
congressional offices with phone calls and letters trying
to halt logging.
The other factor spurring Wyden's actions is that the
company that bought the trees isn't balking at terminating
its contract. In fact, while Vanport Manufacturing has
logged one of the four sections of the sale, its owner,
Adolph Hertrich, has delayed cutting some of the most
sensitive areas in order to give the environmentalists
time to plead their case.
Some timber-industry experts say Hertrich is simply
trying to back away from the a deal he no longer needs
and is letting the environmentalists do the dirty work.
In 1996, he outbid all competitors and swept up the
four portions of the Eagle sales at once. At the time,
he had a thriving business in Boring that milled logs
for the Asian market and employed more than 200 people.
Citing the low supply of federal timber available on
Mount Hood, he closed his mill last spring. That left
him with a bunch of very expensive trees.
Chris West of the Northwest Forest Association says
if Hertrich doesn't want the Eagle trees anymore, he
knows plenty of timber people who do. "If he wants a
sweetheart-special 'get-out-of jail free' card to get
out of his obligations, I call time out," West says.
"That's not how business operates."
Hertrich, however, says his motives are pure and he
could easily make money on the deal by having the logs
milled elsewhere.
"We don't really want to get out of it or need to get
out of it," he says. "We are just saying that if it
is in everybody's best interest, we are not going to
be a stumbling block."
The Forest Service has long maintained that the Eagle
sales follow the guidelines of the Northwest Forest
Plan and are environmentally sound. Agency spokesman
Glenn Sachet isn't sure what the point of Wyden's meeting
is. "From our perspective," he says, "there isn't a
reason to cancel the sale."
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Willamette Week | originally
published August 11,
1999
