Two regional forest-protection groups filed suit in federal court this week, seeking to halt the proposed Westpoint timber sale in the Klamath National Forest pending a comprehensive environmental review. Though the US Forest Service claims the planned logging is aimed at preventing wildfires, representatives of the Garberville, California-based Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) and Ashland, Oregon-based Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center (KS Wild) said the proposed logging and roadbuilding will fragment and destroy important wildlife habitat, including old-growth forest, and will increase fire risks.

According to KS Wild's conservation director, George Sexton, "the logging the Forest Service has proposed in the Westpoint timber sales is precisely the opposite of what you want in a fuels project. Here, the Klamath National Forest is actually targetting the big fire-resistant trees for logging, and leaving the brush and small diameter material which are the greatest fire risks. The result will very likely be to leave the forest more susceptible to uncharacteristic fire events."

Sexton contrasted the plans for the Westpoint project with the nearby Scott Bar Moutain Vegetation Management Project, also on the Scott River. "We know the Forest Service knows how to do a real fuels reduction project," Sexton said, "because they've just done one on Scott Bar Mountain, with 360 acres of understory thinning and 1800 acres of prescribed fire."

Scott Greacen, EPIC's national forest program coordinator, said the Westpoint sale follows a disturbing pattern. "The Forest Service's continuing efforts to log in old-growth forests miles from any towns in the name of wildfire prevention are seriously damaging the agency's attempts to rebuild public trust. Here, in an area with too little old growth and too many roads, the Forest Service never even considered any options other than logging old-growth and building more roads on steep and unstable ground. It's bad forestry, it doesn't pass legal muster, and the American people deserve better from their public-land managers."

Greacen said the Forest Service's problems come right from the top. "Unfortunately, Westpoint is exactly the kind of project you have to expect from an Administration which has put the timber industry's lobbyists and lawyers in charge of the protection of our precious natural heritage. They're turning the clock back thirty years on environmental protection, and threatening our childrens' future."

Greacen noted that the proposed logging would target key wildlife habitat in remnant old-growth forests close to the Marble Mountain Wilderness in the mountains above the lower Scott River, a tributary of the Klamath River. "Among the species that would be imperiled by this destructive logging is the California Siskiyou Mountain Salamander, an extremely rare and unusual animal. We have a responsibility to keep species like these around for our children and grandchildren to discover, and we all know that one of the best and easiest ways to protect rare species is to protect their habitat."

The case, captioned EPIC v. Blackwell, was filed in federal district court in Sacramento. The case number is Civ-S-04-1027 WBS GGH. The Westpoint timber sale would log 1,026 acres in 53 units spread over two separate areas, one on Scott Bar Mountain east of the Lower Scott River, the other in the headwaters of Middle Creek, near the northeast corner of the Marble Mountains Wilderness. The Forest Service has to date failed to reveal the total volume of timber the agency is planning to allow to be logged under the Westpoint Environmental Assessment.