A coalition of regional forest-protection groups announced this week they have appealled to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for review of a district court ruling which failed to properly consider their challenge to a controversial timber sale along the Salmon River in the Klamath National Forest.

The Knob timber sale would cut key ancient forest habitat for the Northern Spotted Owl and three species of salmon, next to a Wilderness trailhead and a Wild and Scenic River. Though the Forest Service claims the project is necessary to prevent wildfire, cutting old-growth forest in this very remote area is likely to increase the risk of wildfire.

The Garberville-based Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), joined by the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center (KS Wild) of Ashland, Oregon, and the Klamath Forest Alliance, based in Orleans, are represented in the case by Marianne Dugan of Eugene, Oregon and Sharon Duggan of Eureka.

"The Knob timber sale is a poster child for everything that the Forest Service is doing wrong in our national forests. In the name of preventing fires, the Klamath National Forest is trying to cut down irreplaceable ancient forests deep in the backcounty," Scott Greacen, EPIC's National Forest Conservation Coordinator, said. "The Forest Service admits they're logging old growth forest, key fish and wildlife habitat, next to a Wilderness trailhead and along a Wild and Scenic River. It's wrong, it's illegal, and it's not what the American people want from their National Forests," he continued.

George Sexton of KSWild underlined the importance of protecting the Salmon River. "The Salmon River is the wildest and cleanest watershed in the Klamath Basin, home to the healthiest chinook run in California, and it's a critical piece of the picture for wild salmon in the Klamath-Trinity system. In its report on the Klamath fish-kill, the National Academy of Sciences recommended that logging on the Salmon River be restricted. But the Bush administration seems bent on cutting as many big trees as fast as possible, no matter what the science or the law say."