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| A bear and a salmon dance to a protest song! |
We went to a Forest Service office in Sandy to rally against the "Jazz" Timber Sale in Mt. Hood National Forest. It's a complicated issue, because while it seems illogical that logging is beneficial for the forest, that's exactly what the Forest Service is claiming. They say the areas planned for logging were planted too closely when reclaimed after a clearcut, and now the maturing trees are too crowded together to be healthy. The problem is that a forest consists of many interconnected living things, not just trees, and the overall effect of logging there will be very negative. The watchdog group
Bark says that the areas planned for logging are especially prone to erosion, and logging cannot help but make the problem much worse. They are planning to log in a watershed where there are endangered salmon, and
an increase in sediment means killing salmon. Bark points out that while the Forest Service claims it monitors logging to make sure all the rules are being followed, they claim they do so without keeping any records of it, so they are unable to prove monitoring actually happens. It seems unlikely the Forest Service could monitor at all now that their Mt. Hood staff was recently cut by more than half. The timber companies have a strong incentive to cut down trees they are not supposed to log and not take the time to minimize erosion, and no one would be the wiser. This particular logging project would require that 12 miles of logging roads which were taken out largely at taxpayer expense be rebuilt. That's a waste of our money, and it definitely could hurt Oregon's chances of getting more federal money to decommission roads in our National Forests. It's well documented that anywhere from a third to a half of all birds in forests nest in cavities, so forests need "snags" (trees that die standing up) since they are ideal for cavity nesting. And if you've ever looked into or under a rotting log, you'll know that even these are vital parts of the ecosystem, providing habitat for countless creatures and giving their nutrients back to the forest as they decompose. Jasper is very concerned about taking care of the environment, and came up with a great slogan for his sign. They kindly asked him to step in front of the microphone to tell everyone, "If I were Mt. Hood, I'd want to keep my wood!" If you want to know more, the
Bark website has detailed info and a link to a well balanced article in the
Oregonian, and there's informative videos
here and
here. If you are interested in helping Bark to block the timber sale, contact
Meredith at Bark (meredith [at] bark-out [dot] org). She has a simple and easy plan that anyone, young or old, can help with.
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| "If I were Mt. Hood, I'd want to keep my wood!" |
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