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The contents of the on-line edition of The Nugget represent a selection among the stories that appear in the weekly print edition.

Group appeals Metolius Project
By Jim Cornelius

An environmental activist group has appealed a decision to thin forests in the Metolius Basin.

The Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project filed an appeal of the 12,500-acre Metolius Basin Forest Management Project on Tuesday, September 2, just before the close of the appeal period.

Karen Coulter, director of the group told The Nugget that, while she favors fuel reduction in the basin, she opposes cutting large trees and activity she thinks will harm soils.

Coulter said that the project exceeds standards for soil compaction. The Forest Service plans to mitigate those impacts.

Tom Mafera, who is administering the project for the Sisters Ranger District, said that District Ranger Bill Anthony is "100 percent confident that the project is going to be consistent with our soil standards and guidelines."

Coulter, however, said that the Forest Service has never guaranteed funding for mitigation. In any case, she believes the project plan violates National Environmental Policy Act regulations.

"You're not allowed to have a finding of 'no significant impact' based on mitigation," Coulter said.

Mafera said that the mitigation will actually improve soil conditions.

"After treatment, the soil compaction out there will be better than it is today," he said. "So there will be a net improvement."

Coulter said she and her group would not have opposed a project that only proposed small tree thinning. She objects to exceptions in the plan that allow for cutting white fir trees up to 25 inches in diameter.

"It's a big commercial timber sale," Coulter said. "It's a lot of big trees."

Coulter acknowledged that the timber sale component of the project is not profitable -- it does not even make the project break even.

Sisters Ranger District Silviculturalist Brian Tandy said, "The objective is not timber management by any stretch of the imagination."

Tandy said that the 25-inch limit on white fir is in place to give the district flexibility.

White fir outgrows ponderosa pine and other trees as long as it doesn't have to face fire. White fir is also susceptible to disease and insect infestation.

"It's just not a long-term tree," Tandy said.

In areas where white fir is competing directly with ponderosa pine, the larger white fir may be cut, Tandy said.

"If the white fir is the only tree out there, we're going to leave it," Tandy said. "It's only when it comes down to a choice (that larger trees will be cut.)"

Coulter also objects to what she calls "clear cuts" of 1/4 to three acres included in the plan to open space for larch tree restoration. The project does not guarantee that large trees will not be cut in those areas, Coulter said.

But Tandy said the "small group cutting" is designed to open up space for sunlight that larch need to thrive. He insisted that the object is not to find a way to cut big trees.

"I'm not going to go into an area where there's 20 big trees to an acre, 30 trees to an acre and cut them down to create an opening," he said.

If nothing else, Tandy said, such an action would squander community trust that he and the district have worked hard to build through the long history of the project.

Community members and environmental groups including the Oregon Natural Resources Council and the Sisters Forest Planning Committee have offered input into the project.

According to the Forest Service, public comment has been overwhelmingly supportive.

"There's just been a tremendous amount of community support and interest," Mafera said.

Coulter said she hopes to negotiate with the Forest Service to separate out what she considers commercial cutting of old growth trees from what she considers legitimate fuel reduction efforts.

"We aren't delaying getting done what needs to be done," she said.

She said that she brought up her concerns with the Sisters District Ranger long before the Forest Service chose its alternative for the project.

"I tried to get him to do the right thing and he didn't," she said.

She noted that Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project did not oppose the district's fuel reduction project along Highway 20.

"We let all that go through and it was great," she said. "But that was a different (presidential) administration. There's a lot of politics involved."

Coulter believes that the Forest Service is under tremendous pressure from the Bush administration.

"His (Bush's) marching orders are clearly to cut big trees under the guise of fuel reduction," Coulter said.

Tandy said that no one in the district feels that kind of pressure. He noted that work on the Metolius Project began five years ago, under a different administration.

"I've been here nine years," the silviculturalist said. "Not once has anybody said, 'Brian, we need to cut some big trees to meet our timber goals.'"

Besides the appeal, the project has been thrown off track by a force of nature --the B&B Fire. The Forest Service will have to reassess the project in the face of fire-changed conditions.

According to Mafera, "What we'll do is take a step back and look at what impact the fire has had in relation to the project."

The Forest Service could decide that the project can go forward as planned, or the agency may decide that a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement is needed.

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