Scoping Comments Needed to Protect Southern Cascades!
The Klamath National Forest is proposing to log an unspecified number of acres from four areas near Mt. Shasta and Medicine Lake, threatening rare northern goshawk nesting territorities, important corridors for the northern spotted owl, and sacred cultural sites. The Little Horse Salvage 2003 Timber Sale is immediately adjacent to another, 4,000 acre logging sale, and comments are needed by July 30 to urge the Forest Service cancel this plan and instead focus on legitimate fuel reduction, restoration, and recovery in the Southern Cascades.
The forests that are targeted in the logging sale were identified in the adjacent logging sale's environmental assessment as the "intact habitat area left" to protect rare species from extinction. The surrounding area has been heavily hit by logging and roads, with associated impacts so severe that additional impacts cannot be tolerated. And as this area is located at the far eastern edge of many species' range, any reduction in this habitat is likely to reduce the potential for their survival in these areas.
