Good News: FERC Upholds Denial of LNG & Pacific Crest Trail Association Protects Donomore Meadows!

The Rogue River and many other rivers and streams in southern Oregon are too precious to risk with contamination from LNG pipelines. FERC recently announced it would uphold its denial of the Jordan Cove LNG Pipeline proposed to cross over 400 rivers and streams. No LNG!

In the aftermath of the Trump election, those of us who care deeply about the environment need a little good news. Yesterday, we got a double dose of much-welcomed good news!

Good News!

FERC Upholds Denial of LNG Pipeline

Yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced they will uphold their denial of the Pacific Connector LNG Pipeline. In March, FERC denied permits for the Pacific Connector LNG pipeline and Jordon Cove export terminal; however, the company appealed the decision and the project was left with an uncertain fate. Yesterday's announcement from FERC is very encouraging and sets a strong precedent for future pipeline proposals.

The Pacific Connector LNG pipeline and Jordon Cove export terminal is proposed to begin in Malin, Oregon in the Klamath Basin, east of the Cascade Mountains, and travel 232 miles to Coos Bay, Oregon. The pipeline would require a ninety-five foot clearcut. The three foot wide natural gas pipeline would cross 157 miles of private land, requiring the use of eminent domain. It would cross 400 streams, including the Rogue, Klamath, Umpqua, Coquille and Coos Rivers, and transport 1.2 billion cubic feet of fracked gas per day. The pipeline would also require a new 420 megawatt power plant used solely to facilitate the export of fracked Canadian gas shipped by massive tankers from the tsunami zone off the Oregon Coast on the North Spit of Coos Bay. The proposal is potentially disastrous to nearly everything in its path and has been strongly opposed by the citizens of Oregon for many years.   

Despite this very good news, we must keep in mind that Jordon Cove and Pacific Connector Pipeline will likely take this decision to the court of appeals, the US Secretary of Commerce, or simply refile the project at a later date. It's not over yet and we may have to keep working to stop this pipeline for a long time ahead.

The good news for the No LNG campaign follows on the heels of the good news for water protectors fighting the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline (DAPL) in North Dakota. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, indigenous activists, water protectors at the camps, and allies from around the world are cautiously celebrating the news that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it will not approve an easement needed to permit the Dakota Access Pipeline to drill under Lake Oahe. The Army Corps said it would look for alternative routes for the $3.7 billion pipeline, possibly leading to a full environmental review through an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). 

Under the Trump administration we must stay vigilant for all environmental, social justice and climate change issues.

For now we celebrate these victories! 

More Good News!

The Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA) Protects Donomore Meadows!

A small portion of the expansive Donomore Meadows system as seen from the PCT. The area is the headwaters of Donomore Creek, a tributary of Elliott Creek.  

   

On the Siskiyou Crest, on the border of Oregon and California, the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) runs through a large, high elevation meadow system called Donomore Meadows. The location of Donomore Meadows on the PCT allows thousands of hikers a year to experience the beauty and high habitat value of these meadows; however, up until now there have always been private property signs marring the wilderness experience. The good news: The PCTA has just announced it has bought the 160-acre Donomore Meadows property through its land protection program!

The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest has money budgeted to buy this parcel from the PCTA in the next fiscal year through the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The agency has long identified Donomore Meadows as a critical acquisition, but the landowner was not willing to wait for the lengthy federal acquisition process to proceed. 

As a non-profit partner, the PCTA stepped in and acquired the property as an interim measure. It is expected that the land will be transferred to federal ownership and added to the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in the near future. 



Donomore Meadows provides critical habitat for many species that rely on high elevation meadows: from deer and elk, to black bear and cougar, to native bees and butterflies and other pollinators. The grassland and wildflowers of Donomore Meadows, the natural springs that feed Donomore Creek, as well as the surrounding forest, all add up to a wonderful place to walk through on the PCT, as well as a key place for land acquisition to add to the value of public land in the Klamath-Siskiyou. 

I am proud to say that in my region public land is expanding rather than being privatized and sold to the highest bidder as some propose. We need to keep working to acquire important parcels on the Siskiyou Crest for conservation interests, rewilding the incredible land bridge and expanding our public land base, one parcel at a time. 

Old-Growth Post Fire Logging Proposed on the Siskiyou Crest!

The Gap Fire near Condrey Mountain is being proposed for post-fire logging despite minimal fire severity. 

The Gap Fire began as a human ignition near Low Gap on the Klamath River above Seiad Valley and the community of Horse Creek on August 27, 2016. The fire spread quickly, pushed by intense downslope winds burning into the community of Horse Creek and destroyed nine homes. After burning through the community of Horse Creek the fire burned upslope toward the Siskiyou Crest in the Horse Creek, Middle Creek and Buckhorn Creek watersheds.

Although a tragedy in Horse Creek, where nine homes burned, the Gap Fire was far from catastrophic and provided great benefit to the habitats in which it burned. The fire burned at 67% low severity, 26% moderate severity and 7% high severity throughout the burn area. The fire burned within the range of variability for wildland fire in the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains. Burning at mixed severity, the fire had positive effects on fuel loading, landscape scale vegetation mosaics, stand structure, nutrient cycling, species composition, age class diversity and other important stand development and forest resiliency measures.

Low severity fire in upper Buckhorn Creek

Despite the positive effects of the Gap Fire, the KNF has proposed to implement old-growth post fire logging at the headwaters of Buckhorn Creek in a nationally significant habitat connectivity corridor. The KNF has proposed to clearcut 2,257 acres of fire-affected forest in Buckhorn, Middle and Horse Creeks. They are also proposing 103 miles of roadside hazard logging. The sale is proposed in many biologically important areas, including the Johnny O’Neill Late Successional Reserve and the Horse Creek Botanical Area, designated to protect complex old forest habitat. 

The fire also burned adjacent to the Condrey Mountain Blue Schist Geologic Area, the Pacific Crest Trail, the Condrey Mountain Roadless Area and KNF designated Back-Country Area.

Proposed logging units extend from lower Horse Creek near the Klamath River, into Buckhorn Creek and high on the Siskiyou Crest near Condrey Mountain and Dry Lake Mountain. The region is known and renowned for its intact wildland habitats, old-growth forests, mountain meadows, aspen glades, rare and diverse wildflower displays and important wildlife habitat. The area supports the Pacific fisher, large herds of elk, black bear, and was the location of the last reported wolverine siting on the Siskiyou Crest in 1997.

The PCT runs directly above some areas targeting for logging in the Gap Fire post-fire logging project. Given the international acclaim of the PCT, it would be unwise to log so close to the trail. Maintaining a healthy, intact ecosystem along the PCT corridor is consistent with the current and expected future recreational use of the area and and the economic vitality the PCT brings to the region.

The Siskiyou Crest represents one of the most important connectivity corridors and climate refuges in western North America. A transverse range, running east to west, the Siskiyou Crest connects the Oregon and California interior valleys to the Cascade Mountains, the Coast Ranges and the high deserts of the Great Basin. At the center of this connectivity corridor, and on the edge of the region's vast network of unprotected roadless areas and protected wilderness, is Condrey Mountain. Condrey Mountain represents a pinch point in connectivity where heavy industrial logging to the south has eliminated vast swaths of complex forest habitat, replacing it with dense tree plantations and barren clearcut swaths logged in the aftermath of the 2014 Beaver Fire on the Klamath River.

Post-fire logging on Fruit Growers Supply land in the Beaver Fire. This photo is taken directly adjacent to the photo below. 

Unlogged high severity fire in the Beaver Fire of 2014, taken directly adjacent to the photo above. Notice the difference in vegetative recovery.

In 2014, following the Beaver Fire, industrial logging interests such as the Fruit Growers Supply Company (FGS) devastated vast tracts of private timber land, logging fire scorched stands, live trees and patches of fire resilient forest. FGS leveled whole watersheds due east of the Gap Fire Area, creating massive clearcuts thousands of acres wide. The devastation left behind is unmistakable and the cumulative impact unacceptable.

The large denuded slope in this photograph was logged by Fruit Growers Supply Company following the 2014 Beaver Fire and lies directly adjacent to the area burned in the Gap Fire on the Siskiyou Crest.

To make matters worse, FGS is preparing to log off their holdings in the Gap Fire and the KNF is proposing to clearcut thousands of acres of fire-affected forest currently benefiting from natural fire revitalization. The proposed logging project will further exacerbate already significant cumulative impacts to old forest and endangered species habitat, endangered fisheries (coho salmon), soils and future fire hazards on the Klamath River due to recent post-fire logging in the Beaver Fire, Happy Camp Fire, and now, Gap Fire footprints.

The forests of the Condrey Mountain-Dry Lake Mountain area at the headwaters of Buckhorn Creek have been targeted by the KNF with many post-fire logging units, despite sustaining predominantly low severity fire effects. The forests proposed for logging are the last remaining ancient forest habitats in the Buckhorn Creek watershed. The KNF intentionally lit these forests ablaze between September 3 and September 8, 2016 in order to bolster fire containment. They now intend to log the natural fire mosaic, removing massive old trees and the building blocks of forest complexity (e.g. old snags, downed wood, old living trees, etc).

Small snag patches such as this one in upper Buckhorn Creek are being targeted for logging by the KNF. The damage to soils, forest regeneration, and habitat complexity will degrade some of the watershed's only remaining old-growth forest.

Live trees as well as dead trees will be logged. Some units will be treated with ground-based yarding which could severely damage the highly erodible schist soils of the Condrey Mountain area. New "temporary" road will be constructed. 

Many beautiful springs and meadows are located within or adjacent to the logging units, including Buckhorn Spring, a historic campsite and intact native habitat at the very headwaters of Buckhorn Creek.  

The meadows adjacent to Buckhorn Spring are currently surrounded by intact high elevation forest and are proposed for logging by the KNF.

In recent years the KNF has decimated thousands of acres in post-fire logging projects, often following characteristic and natural wildfire events. Although touted as "fire recovery" the projects serve only to produce large volumes of old-growth timber for the industry, while degrading forest habitats, inhibiting natural recovery, filling nearby streams with sediment, creating unnatural plantation stands and drastically increasing future fire hazards. 

Please help these fire-affected forests recover naturally. Provide public comment on the ironically named Horse Creek Community Protection and Forest Restoration Project. 

Talking Points: 

• Implement only fuel reduction adjacent to the community of Horse Creek, consider the use of prescribed fire and non-commercial fuel treatments.
• Cancel all post-fire logging units in the Siskiyou Crest connectivity corridor near Condrey Mountain and Dry Lake Mountain.
• Cancel all post-fire logging units in the Johnny O'Neill Late Successional Reserve.
• Analyze the cumulative impact of private land logging, public land logging, and discretionary fire suppression impacts such as dozerline and backburning in the Environmental Analysis.
• Do not implement post-fire logging treatments in forested habitats purposefully backburned by fire suppression crews. 
• Cancel all post-fire logging units due to extreme cumulative impacts and to compensate for the damage already done on adjacent private timber land. 

Please submit comments to the Klamath National Forest at the following website: 

Gap Fire/Horse Creek Post-Fire Logging Project 

East Applegate Ridge Trail EA Released!

A view south into Ruch from the East Applegate Ridge Trail.

The Applegate Trails Association (ATA) is a non-profit trail organization advocating for non-motorized trails in the Applegate Valley. ATA has been promoting the Applegate Ridge Trail (ART) since 2011. The ART will extend from Jacksonville to Grants Pass and will tie into the Jack-Ash Trail, proposed to connect Jacksonville to Ashland. In total the two trails will cover over 80 miles and will provide appropriate, non-motorized trail access to the beautiful foothills of the Applegate Valley.

The BLM just released the Environmental Assessment (EA) for the East Applegate Ridge Trail, a 5.6-mile portion of trail connecting Sterling Creek Road to Highway 238 near Forest Creek and the town of Ruch. It will be one of the most beautiful non-motorized trails in the Applegate Valley, with its spectacular views, picturesque oak woodland and grassy prairie slopes.

The EA also proposes to obliterate an unauthorized, user-created OHV trail impacting soil resources, botanical resources, wildlife and facilitating private land trespass.

Please support the East Applegate Ridge Trail and ATA. Send a public comment on the East ART EA and support non-motorized recreation in the Applegate Valley. 

Talking Points:

• Show support for the Applegate Ridge Trail and non-motorized recreation in the Applegate Valley.
• Ask the BLM to approve the East Applegate Ridge Trail and obliterate the existing unauthorized OHV trail as proposed in the EA.
• Ask the BLM to expedite the process to analyze and approve the remaining portions of the Applegate Ridge Trail from Highway 238 to Board Shanty Road. Recommend that subsequent EAs be prepared promptly to facilitate speedy development of this important non-motorized trail. This would include the Center ART from Highway 238 to Humbug Creek, the Flank of Old Blue from Humbug Creek to the Enchanted Forest Trail on Slagle Creek, and the West ART from Slagle Creek to Board Shanty Road.
• Reconsider the RMP designation to remove Lands with Wilderness Characteristics (LWC) in the Wellington Butte Area. Please protect the Wellington Butte LWC.
• Recommend that the BLM add the eastern China Gulch additions to the Wellington LWC as proposed by ATA and ANN.

Send Written Comments To:

BLM (Attention: Shana McCarty)

3025 Biddle Road

Medford, Oregon 97504

Send Email Comments To:

blm_or_md_mail@blm.gov

(be sure to include Shana McCarty in the subject line)

Bishop Creek Ridge on the East Applegate Ridge Trail.

Join the ATA for an evening in celebration of the Applegate Ridge Trail and the release of "Walking the Wild Applegate" a short documentary film about the first thru hike from Ashland to Grants Pass on the Jack-Ash and Applegate Ridge Trail.

Walking the Wild Applegate- Film Showing!

When: December 9, 2016 6:00 PM
Where: At the Ruch Fire Station Public Meeting Room
              1095 Upper Applegate Road 

Support Science-Based Expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument!

The Horseshoe Ranch Wildlife Area on lower Scotch Creek would be added to the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument if the proposed expansion is approved. This vital wildlife corridor would be protected by Monument designation, protecting the watershed from its dramatic headwaters at Pilot Rock, to its mouth at soon-to-be-undammed Iron Gate Lake.

At the spectacular collision of the Cascade and Siskiyou Mountains lies a region of transition, contrast and renowned biodiversity. The region provides vital connectivity between the Cascade Mountains, the Siskiyou Mountains, the Coast Ranges of Oregon and California, the high deserts of eastern Oregon, and the interior valleys of southern Oregon and northern California. In essence, the Cascade-Siskiyou region ties together the major plant communities and ecoregions of the west. The mountains are an intriguing mosaic of grasslands, oak woodlands, juniper scrub, chaparral, dry pine forests, moist fir forests, meadows, glades, wetlands, springs and volcanic rock outcrops. The area, although sometimes subtle, is stunningly diverse.

A portion of this region was protected in 2000 as the 53,000-acre Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. 13,000 acres of private land purchased by conservation interests have been added to the monument in the preceding 16 years, bringing the total to 66,000 acres. The current Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument includes the Soda Mountain Wilderness, 19 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, 120 butterfly species, 300 species of animals, 200 species of birds and an incredible array of plant species. The existing monument supports populations of the rare Gentner's fritillary (Fritillaria gentneri), the threatened Oregon spotted frog, northern spotted owls, Roosevelt elk, mule deer, grey wolves, and many others. The Jenny Creek redband trout and the Jenny Creek sucker are found nowhere in the world outside the waters of Jenny Creek at the eastern portion of the monument. The landscape is wild, unique and beautiful.

The rugged Jenny Creek Canyon, including the spectacular and remote Jenny Creek Falls, would be protected if the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument expansion is approved. This would protect one of the region's wildest canyons and the major waterfalls that serve to keep the endemic Jenny Creek redband trout and Jenny Creek sucker isolated and genetically unique.

Currently, the Obama Administration is considering the  designation of a sizable expansion to the the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. The proposed expansion would extend to the north and south of the existing National Monument boundary,  including 66,000 acres in the vicinity of Grizzly Peak, the Dead Indian Plateau, Old Baldy and the headwaters of Jenny Creek, as well as lower Scotch Creek, the Horseshoe Ranch Wildlife Area, and the Jenny Creek Canyon in California. The expansion area includes five Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, 17 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, numerous rare and endemic plant and animal species, significant areas of oak woodland, old growth forests, beautiful meadows and high levels of biodiversity.

The expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument would protect the natural resources and intact habitats of the region, provide economic benefits, recreational opportunities and enhance our quality of life in southern Oregon and northern California. Please support a science-based expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. The future of our region depends on it. 

Privately owned land managed for conservation by the Selberg Institute, combined with National Monument expansion in the Sampson Creek area, will protect some of the Rogue River Valley's most beautiful and intact oak woodland.

Consider attending public meetings and speaking out on behalf of monument expansion, writing letters to the editor, and contacting your public officials. Opportunities to support the science-based expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument are listed below. Please help us demonstrate grassroots support for expansion and encourage the Obama administration to designate a bigger, wilder, more ecologically functional monument for the future of southern Oregon. 

          Write Letters to Your Elected Officials

Contact President Obama

Contact Secretary of Interior

 Contact Senator Merkely 
(541) 608-9102

Contact Senator Wyden
(541) 858-5122 

Provide written comment to the Jackson County Commissioners at the following email address: 

 BoC_CAO_Admin@jacksoncounty.org

Attend Public Meetings

Klamath County Commissioners are holding a public hearing to solicit comments on the proposed expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Please attend and speak out in support of science-based expansion.

When: Tuesday, November 1, at 6:00 PM

Where: Government Center Hearing Room 219 at 

305 Main Street, Klamath Falls

A carpool will be leaving from Ashland at the KS Wild office at 3:00 PM        (3185 East Main, Ashland).  

Submit a Letter to the Editor

Mail Tribune and Daily Tidings Submission Form  

Proposed expansion areas are bordered in green. The expanded monument would extend from the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest boundary to beyond the California border. 

   

BLM Shelves the Nedsbar Timber Sale — For Now!

Local residents protest the Nedsbar Timber Sale auction on September 22, 2016.
Photo: www.timdawphotography.com

Last week the Medford District BLM proposed to sell the Nedsbar Timber Sale to the highest bidder, offering some of the last roadless forests in the Applegate Valley to private timber interests for $68 per thousand board feet. The agency was offering 3.4 million board feet of public forest for a minimum bid of $231,014.60.

The community of the Applegate Valley believes these intact forests are priceless, and in response organized a large protest at the timber sale auction on Thursday, September 22, 2016. 

With resistance to the sale growing, 75 residents of the Rogue and Applegate Valleys attended the rally, advocating that the BLM withdraw the sale and protect the area's important biological and recreational values.

Photo: www.timdawphotography.com

Protestors held signs, sang songs, held mock timber auctions, shared information about the timber sale, spoke with media and advocated for protection of the area's ecology and recreation-based economy. Some in attendance wanted to witness the process of the auction and tried to enter the auction. These residents were denied access and public timber was auctioned to private interests behind closed doors. 

Residents expressed their concerns about the timber sale and the lack of meaningful collaboration that led to its approval, airing their concerns with BLM officials and filling the lobby of the Medford District BLM Office. Protestors also spread out across the parking lot and along the main street bordering the BLM office, receiving many honks and cheers of approval from passing motorists.  

Photo: www.timdawphotography.com

Following the protest and timber auction, BLM announced that the Nedsbar Timber Sale received no bidders. Having failed to sell, the BLM announced it would re-offer the Nedsbar Timber Sale under a 30-day sealed bidding process, allowing the industry yet another chance to purchase our public forests for private gain.

Within days of this announcement the BLM reevaluated the situation and has now removed the sale from the sealed bidding process. "We're going to pull it back and see if we can work on the economics of it. We'll look at everything to see if there's some tweeks or changes to improve this sale," said BLM spokesperson, Jim Whittington, to the Medford Mail Tribune. 

The timber industry wants a more economical sale and is pressing the agency to repackage Nedsbar into a sale that includes only the most economical units. 

"I don't see anyone coming up and grabbing it the way it is," said Andy Geissler to the Medford Mail Tribune. Andy Geissler is a timber industry lobbyist from the American Forest Resource Council. "Its good to hear it's getting a makeover," he said.

The "makeover" the timber industry is hoping for will likely include either lowering the minimum bid price or reducing the cost of logging by dropping units with low volume per acre. This would leave only the units with the highest timber volumes and largest trees included in the sale. 

Photo: www.timdawphotography.com

The industry would also like to see prescriptions rely less on helicopter logging which is expensive to implement, Geissler said.  

Local residents are also hoping many of the helicopter logging units will be dropped, especially those in roadless areas or fire resilient, late seral stands. Numerous units on Bald Mountain, in the Little Appleagate River canyon, at the head of Grouse Creek and on Boaz Mountain should be removed from the timber sale.

The BLM is analyzing the administrative "protest letters" they received from the Applegate Neighborhood Network (ANN) and others. We hope this analysis will allow the BLM to amend the Decision Record, withdraw the currently approved Nedsbar Timber Sale and implement the Community Alternative, Alternative 5 through a series of stewardship contracts. The Community Alternative will protect the area's important natural values while reducing fuels, increasing forest health, enhancing our local economy and producing a sustainable supply of timber. 

The BLM has indicated that if the sale undergoes substantial changes during this reevalutation process a new public comment period would be necessary. They have indicated that no work will proceed until next spring or summer.

This is a victory for now, but it is clear that much more work is ahead of us as we urge the BLM to do the right thing and truly listen to and collaborate with local residents opposed to the Nedsbar Timber Sale. 

A community in action: Stop Nedsbar!

All photos courtesy: www.timdawphotography.com

Collaboration? The BLM Ignores Public Input and Moves Forward with Nedsbar Despite Near Unanimous Disapproval

Many Applegate Valley community members participated in the planning process for the Nedsbar Timber Sale. Based on a review of pubic comments received by the BLM, it appears that the vast majority of the local community is opposed to the Nedsbar Timber Sale as it has been approved.

99% Oppose the Nedsbar Timber Sale

In the recent Decision Record for the Nedsbar Timber Sale released by the Medford District BLM, the agency approved Alternative 4 with only slight modifications. Alternative 4 is the sweetheart deal for the timber industry, but has been strongly opposed for over two years by residents in the Applegate Valley community. The project demonstrates the BLM's lack of collaborative capacity and inability to incorporate community concerns into public land management projects. Still stuck in the past, Medford BLM is refusing to move forward with us into a collaborative, more ecologically sustainable future.

The Nedsbar Timber Sale was proposed in the Applegate Adaptive Management Area (AMA), where innovative forestry and significant public involvement and collaboration is mandated under the Northwest Forest Plan. The AMA was designated in 1994 to promote experimental, ecologically based forestry rooted in community values — it is a much-loved component of Applegate culture. 

In the spirit of collaboration and innovation, residents in the Applegate Valley community developed the Community Alternative, an alternative to the Nedsbar Timber Sale, that the BLM agreed to analyze as Alternative 5 in the Nedsbar Timber Sale Environmental Analysis. The community invested thousands of hours in the "collaborative" process to develop the Community Alternative; unfortunately, our concerns and desires feel upon deaf ears. 

Despite a claim to have incorporated community concerns into the final decision, the BLM moved forward with the highly controversial Alternative 4 and failed to incorporate or even meaningfully analyze the many ecological, economical, and community based concerns documented by the Applegate community. Although the agency claims to have "blended" Alternatives 4 and 5, not a shred of the Community Alternative can be found in the Decision Record. The community has opposed new road construction, roadless area logging, the removal of large fire resistant trees, excessive impacts to the northern spotted owl and the increase in fire risks associated with the levels of canopy reduction proposed by the BLM. Unfortunately, the BLM approved all of these things in the decision record and is moving forward with near unanimous disapproval in the Applegate community.

The decision demonstrates the futile nature of collaboration with unaccountable, unresponsive, and irresponsible public agencies like the Medford District BLM, who hold our community values in contempt and exclusively serve the interests of the timber industry. Our public BLM lands are being offered up to the highest bidder while the public is offered only token gestures, hollow words and grave environmental, economic and social impacts. The countless volunteer hours and thoughtful public input has been cast aside and our valid concerns disregarded while the agency panders to the demands of the industry to maximize timber production. 

Residents opposed to the Nedsbar Timber Sale on a BLM field trip.

After asking the BLM to openly disclose the public comments regarding the Nedsbar Timber Sale — as many land management agencies do — instead of doing the collaborative thing and releasing the comments, Medford BLM told me I had to FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) the records, which I did. The results from my review of these comments are not surprising, but are altogether unjust, undemocratic and inexcusable. 

The agency received 426 public comments on the Nedsbar Timber Sale Environmental Assessment. A full 99% of these comments (423) were submitted by public citizens that supported the Community Alternative (Alt. 5) and opposed Alternative 4. One other comment was received that did not specifically support of the Community Alternative, but did support many of its basic tenets including a diameter limit, no regeneration logging and cancellation of all units on Bald Mountain. A total of two letters were submitted to the BLM in support of the Selected Alternative (Alt. 4), one from a private citizen and one from the American Forest Resource Council (AFRC), a timber industry lobby group. When compared to the Selected Alternative, the Community Alternative was supported at a rate of over 210 to 1. 

Many Applegate residents took the time to write lengthy, detailed, and site-specific comments rooted in place-based knowledge, science and a collaborative spirit. In comparison, AFRC wrote a total of five pages of public comment, without any site-specific knowledge, but the BLM gave these brief comments from the timber industry lobby group more consideration than those of the local residents.

Instead of working collaboratively with the community, the BLM chose to serve the interests of the industry, fan the flames of controversy and prove themselves incapable of representing the needs of the local people. The Nedsbar Timber Sale should be withdrawn. Logging this sale as it is approved will impact important public resources and harm the future of collaboration in the Applegate Valley.

Please contact the following public official and ask them to withdraw the Nedsbar Timber Sale and commit to the economically sustainable, ecologically appropriate and community based form of land management mandated in the Applegate AMA. 

Secretary of Interior, Sally Jewel
exsec_exsec@ios.doi.gov

State BLM Director, Ron Dutton
BLM_OR_SO_Land_Office_Mail@blm.gov

Senator Ron Wyden
https://www.wyden.senate.gov/contact/


Senator Jeff Merkely 
https://www.merkley.senate.gov/contact

Senator Kevin Talbert
Sen.KevinTalbert@state.or.us

Join us on Thursday September 22, 2016 8:00 AM at the Medford BLM Office (3040 Biddle Road, Medford, Oregon) for a rally to Stop Nedsbar! 

The BLM will be auctioning off our beloved forests and the community will be there supporting the wildlands of the Applegate Valley.