UPDATE 3/7/13: Thanks to your participation, this proposal has been withdrawn. For more information visit our Returning to a Natural Cycle of Wildfire page.
The Mendocino National Forest (NF) is proposing another post-fire “salvage” timber sale, covering 300 acres in the Wild and Scenic Middle Fork Eel River, a key watershed that is critical for salmon recovery. Several units of the project are proposed right against the border of recently designated wilderness.
The 31,050 acre North Pass Fire burned 21,693 acres at low severity, and only 855 acres at high severity, making up less than 3% of the total fire area. The North Pass Fire burned as fire is supposed to do; it was a totally natural event. Nevertheless, there were 46 miles of fireline constructed during suppression efforts, most often done with bulldozers, a highly impactful means of responding to a disturbance cycle that is as natural as rain in Northern California forests.
The proposed project would log snag forest stands within Northern Spotted Owl Critical Habitat, while damaging natural regeneration and recovery. Subsequent replanting would establish highly flammable plantations.
Good News on the Klamath NF!
Public Input Works. By taking action late last year with EPIC to oppose salvage logging proposed after last summer’s Goff Fire in the Klamath NF near the Oregon border, you have saved wild forests from unnecessary and damaging post-fire logging. The Klamath National Forest has cancelled plans to heavily log the Kangaroo Roadless Area! The Forest Service changed course because-
1) Helicopter logging was not economically viable;
2) Klamath NF Fire staff said that post-fire logging would not improve firefighter or community safety; and
3) the Forest Service had heard from enough people that value the Kangaroo Roadless Area to realized there was nothing collaborative about a “salvage” proposal.
Now, land mangers will be concentrating on fuels reduction 500 feet around private properties and roadside hazard tree logging. Because a formal proposal is not yet finalized, EPIC will continue to follow the Klamath National Forest post-fire projects related to the Goff fire closely.
To learn more about post-fire “salvage” logging click here.