Bark Alert: Another timber sale stopped!

Dear Barker,

Last October Bark asked you to take action to protect the Zigzag recreation area from thousands of acres of proposed logging. It worked! The Horseshoe Timber Sale was withdrawn faster than any sale in Mt. Hood’s history – a testament to the disconnect between the Forest Service’s timber program and the public’s expectations for our forests, as well as the effect of public pressure on decisions affecting our forests.

Speaking of the Forest Service acting against social mandate, the agency is reneging on its commitment to right-size Mt. Hood’s crumbling road system to protect our watersheds. Take action now and read on for details.

Sincerely,
Alex P Brown, Executive Director

PS – Our Nestlé Day of Action last month was a success with 200 Nestlé opponents gathering for our aerial art mob action! Read our report-back and see the great images captured at the event.


Bark-Out: Don’t let the Mt. Hood Forest Supervisor destroy years of work and restoration gains!   
Bark-About:  Roads hike with a restoration advocate
Giving Tree: Drivers needed for March 16th BMP training
Bark Tales: Lola is awesome and you can be too – join us for upcoming trainings!
Howls and Growls: Howls for protecting Mt. Hood recreation and growls for threatening a million acres of native forests
Hood Hydrology: Ripping roads repairs rivers

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Bark-Out
Mt. Hood Forest Supervisor plans to scrap years of work on road decommissioning!

For more than a decade stakeholders and specialists have collaborated to resolve the problem of crumbling and unneeded roads in Mt. Hood National Forest. Now the Mt. Hood Forest Supervisor, Chris Worth, wants to erase years of work and start from scratch. His new plan would halt the progressive work already underway to decommission unneeded roads in our public forest and bring it back to the drawing board by unnecessarily re-doing roads analyses already completed by the Forest Service. Meanwhile, 4,000 miles of roads in Mt. Hood National Forest continue to add tons of sediment to fish-bearing streams and public drinking water sources every year.

Don’t let Forest Supervisor Chris Worth erase years of work to decommission unneeded and crumbling roads in Mt. Hood National Forest. Tell his superiors in the Forest Service that we can’t afford to waste any more time or money postponing this crucial restoration work!


Bark-About
See first-hand the importance of road decommissioning in our public forests

Join a tenacious advocate for road decommissioning in Mt. Hood National Forest, Lori Ann Burd, to see the impacts and effects of the road network in Portland’s back yard forest. Lori Ann will discuss Bark's work to get unneeded roads on the forest landscape closed and ecologically restored, and show us examples of some of the good work the Forest Service is doing address the crumbling road network on Mt. Hood.

Come prepared to walk up to three miles on this month's hike. Please bring lunch, water, and sturdy boots. The weather is very unpredictable this time of year, so please be prepared for various weather conditions. Bark-Abouts are led on the second Sunday of every month and are free to the public. Click here for more information about this month’s hike.


Giving Tree
Drivers needed for March 16th BMP training in Mt. Hood National Forest

Bark has a team of awesome volunteers heading out to the forest next Saturday, March 16th, to do some post-logging monitoring work. But we don’t have enough drivers for the carpool. Are you are able to drive out to the forest in exchange for learning some forest monitoring skills and protecting Mt Hood National Forest? If you can offer a ride to our post-logging groundtruthers, please contact [email protected]. Donating your carpool capacity will ensure that our work gets done in the forest!


Bark Tales
Lola Goldberg is one awesome Barker!

Lola has been a Bark volunteer for many years, participating in 2nd Sunday Bark-About hikes, acting as a spokesperson for the Hey NW Natural Campaign to stop the Palomar Pipeline, organizing Bark Summer School events, groundtruthing the Jazz Timber Sale, and doing field work for our Best Management Practices post-logging monitoring. Lola’s dedication to Bark is remarkable, from spreading the word about our work to making sure the work gets done with their boots on the ground in Mt. Hood National Forest. Here’s a great big howl for one of our most dedicated volunteers: HHHHHAAAAAAOOOOOOO!

Have you wanted to volunteer with Bark but haven’t been sure where to plug in? Join us for our next Bark-About hike and check out our series of upcoming trainings, starting with Groundtruthing Trainings this month. Get started protecting Mt. Hood National Forest with us!
 

Howls and Growls
Howls to Mt. Hood Zigzag District Ranger Bill Westbrook and growls to Governor Kitzhaber

We are thrilled to announce that the Horseshoe Timber Sale, one of the most shocking logging proposals to hit Mt. Hood in years, has been stopped! Horseshoe threatened to destroy scenic views, popular trails, and healthy salmon habitat in a recreation hub of Mt. Hood National Forest, but thanks to your efforts is no more. Thanks to all the Barkers who commented on the importance of protecting quiet recreation and healthy watersheds from logging plans by the Forest Service timber program. Here’s a howl for Zigzag District Ranger Bill Westbrook and the Forest Service biologists who advocated for the protection of the restored rivers and popular hiking areas impacted by the Horseshoe Timber Sale. HHHHHAAAAAAOOOOOO!
Send Bill Westbrook a quick note to say "thank you" today.

We are dismayed to share the news that Governor Kitzhaber’s attempt to find a solution to the financial troubles facing counties traditionally reliant on the boom and bust timber economy has created more threats to Oregon public forests. Two important and telling notes come out of the Oregon Governor’s efforts: First, is a clear signal that Gov. Kitzhaber is out of touch with the needs of our forests, with his shocking statement “Is there social license for clearcutting?” Second, he is sending our congressional delegation a message that Oregon is ready to sacrifice more than one million acres of native old growth forest to keep rural counties financially dependent on unsustainable resource extraction.
Here’s a growl for Governor Kitzhaber for supporting the destruction of our last remaining native forests. GGGGGGRRRRRRR!
Contact Senator Wyden today to let him know you disagree with Governor Kitzhaber’s position.


Hood Hydrology
Logging roads are the greatest threat to Mt. Hood watersheds

Roads are the leading cause of water quality impairment on forestlands nationwide, creating sediment in streams that kill endangered fish, destroy salmon spawning habitat, and create increased expense for drinking water treatment. In Mt. Hood National Forest alone, 4,000 miles of roads cut through the forest landscape. Of those 4,000 miles of road, the Forest Service has determined 49% are unneeded and should be decommissioned. To get a sense of the remarkable impact of decommissioning old logging roads, a recent study by Wildlands CPR showed that decommissioning 42 miles of forest roads prevented 200 one-ton truckloads of sediment from entering waterways. Imagine what that could mean if it was applied to 49% of the 4,000 miles of road in Mt. Hood National Forest!

Bark continues to be a fierce advocate for continued work on road decommissioning in Mt. Hood National Forest. Check out our Bark-Out segment above for information about a recent threat to ongoing watershed restoration in the forest and take action to support decommissioning roads on Mt. Hood!