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The "Knob" Timber Sale (TS) is located in the Klamath National Forest and includes almost 600 acres of ancient and mature forests adjacent to the Salmon River. The area connects two designated old growth reserves, and is also part of a proposed expansion to the Trinity Alps and Marbled Mountain Wilderness areas.
This logging sale, and another on its heels, threatens to create a giant break in this vital wildlife corridor. The Knob TS would log over 7 million board feet, or approximately 1,500 logging truckloads. Douglas firs, ponderosa pines, and sugar pines measuring up to 7 feet in diameter are all marked for cutting through the sale.
EPIC has followed the Knob TS since we initiated our National Forest Conservation Program. The logging sale was withdrawn in July 2002 due to comments and an appeal we submitted at the administrative level. However, the Forest Service did not waste any time in pushing forward again, releasing a new assessment four months later and approving it in December 2002 with virtually no modifications. EPIC filed a second administrative appeal in February 2003, but it was soon denied by the Forest Supervisor, forcing EPIC to turn to the courts.
In addition to the stunning qualities of the Salmon River, the Knob TS threatens numerous rare and endangered species. It contains three different designated critical habitat units for the northern spotted owl, and also provides important habitat for such species as Pacific fishers, American martens, coho salmon, northern goshawks, and wild orchids.
EPIC's lawsuit cites the Forest Service for failing to disclose these impacts, and for failing to analyze the combined effects of this logging sale with another large one in the immediate vicinity. It charges that logging would harm northern spotted owls, coho salmon and other imperiled species, and that it would degrade the outstanding qualities for which the Salmon is designated as a Wild and Scenic River. It also cites the Forest Service for failing to conduct required wildlife surveys for American martens, Pacific fishers, and other creatures that are identified as "management indicator species."
As with most logging sales in the West, the Forest Service used "fire safety" as a ruse to log this remote forest, claiming it will "lower fire risk condition classes." However, by removing the largest and most fire-resistant trees, the Forest Service would do nothing to reduce the risk of catastrophic fire, and in fact, would do exactly the reverse. Opening the canopy will increase flammable brush and undergrowth, and make the stands hotter, drier, and more prone to fire.
EPIC is working on this issue with the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center and Klamath Forest Alliance, and together we are also closely monitoring other logging sales proposed in the area. The Forest Service has agreed to postpone the logging sale for now, but we stand poised and ready to file emergency motions if necessary to protect this magical place.
EPIC and co-plaintiffs are represented in this case by Marianne Dugan, Brenna Bell, and Sharon Duggan.
