In what has become an annual event, timber planners on the Klamath National Forest are once again proposing post-fire clearcut logging and road construction in an otherwise protected old-growth "Late Successional Reserve."
This time, the US Forest Service is targeting the steep headwaters of the Salmon River Watershed in the Taylor Creek Late Successional Reserve and Orleans Inventoried Roadless Area up to the boundary of the Trinity Alps Wilderness.
There are times when the Forest Service proposes post-fire management along roads, near homes and communities and in previously managed stands with the support of communities and stakeholders. Unfortunately, the River Complex instead targets backcountry old-growth and riparian reserves that are essential to critical spotted owl and salmon habitat.
The Forest Service River Complex salvage logging planning page can be viewed on the US Forest Service website here.
Please take action and send a note to the Klamath National Forest asking that they avoid salvage logging and road construction on steep slopes in backcountry wildlands and that they instead focus restoration efforts where they will do the most good: along existing roads and nearer to at-risk homes and communities.