Bark Alert: Bark is hiring and introducing Zombie Jazz

Dear Barker,

When the Forest Service prioritizes logging, it loses sight of everything else that our Mt. Hood National Forest provides, from clean drinking water to quiet recreation access and intact wildlife habitat. The recently re-released Jazz Timber Sale is a particularly disturbing example. After Bark’s successful challenge to the proposal last year, the Forest Service could have refocused on restoring the Clackamas River watershed and providing world-class recreation opportunities – but instead it has chosen to invest its resources in logging the most geologically unstable watershed in all of Mt. Hood National Forest. You can make a difference right now with a tax-deductible donation that will help Bark challenge Mt. Hood logging and by taking action below.

Sincerely,
Alex P Brown, Executive Director

PS – Bark is hiring! Applications for our program director position are due April 12th -- details below.

PPS – Bark is also seeking a mechanic who will guide us through the process of purchasing a reliable used vehicle…and ideally help us maintain it! Please reply to this email if that’s you.


Bark-Out: 6,000 acres threatened   
Bark-About: Kid friendly hike on the Clackamas River
Giving Tree: Three spring events you don’t want to miss
Bark Tales: Bark is hiring – help us spread the word!
Bark Bites: ‘Zombie’ Jazz Timber Sale – back from the grave!
Hood Hydrology: Watershed impacts from Timberline



Bark-Out
Hold the Forest Service accountable to meaningful public process

The Polallie-Cooper, Lava, and Red Hill Timber Sales threaten nearly 6,000 acres on the north slope of Mt. Hood, right up against the Mt. Hood Wilderness Area. Time and again, the Forest Service plans multiple timber sales simultaneously and in the same area without analyzing the cumulative impacts that are inevitable if  multiple thousands of acres were to be logged in a single watershed.

Case in point, the Forest Service recently issued a scoping notice on the Lava Timber Sale initiating a public comment opportunity. Although a scoping period is designed for the public to provide meaningful feedback that the Forest Service can incorporate into a project, Lava’s scoping period is scheduled at a time of year when the entire planning area is inaccessible due to snow! This is hardly the first time Bark groundtruthers and other members of the pubic have been unable to access a timber sale during the scoping period to provide meaningful, site specific input. And as timber sales continue to be planned larger and larger it is increasingly difficult for the public to have ample time to see a proposed sale from the ground level. Tell the Forest Service it's time to take public process seriously and schedule comment deadlines in a way that realistically allows public participation! Submit your comment today!


Bark-About
Family friendly hike

Bagby Hot Springs, Tilly Jane Campground, Big Eddy on the Clackamas River... all these popular recreation sites and dozens more across Mt. Hood National Forest have been transferred from public to private management by the Forest Service in the past year. The trend of privatizing public recreation continues both on Mt. Hood and on public land around the country. Join long time Barkers Carolyn and Martin Evans for a family friendly hike along the Clackamas River to explore the impacts recreation privatization has on public use of public land.

This is a family friendly hike! Children are encouraged to come along for an easy going, mostly flat hike of less than three miles. We ask that you leave your dogs at home this month to make sure it is a child friendly environment.

Please bring lunch, water, and sturdy boots. The weather is very unpredictable this time of year, so come 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
Three great benefits for Bark in April

April 20th, Banana Stand Media presents a benefit concert for Bark at Kelly’s Olympian.
Minden, Genders, and Sama Dams play Kelly’s Olympian
Saturday, April 20th, 8:30pm
426 SW Washington St.
Click here for details

April 21st is 5% for Bark day at People’s Food Co-op! Then, catch us at People's famous year-round Farmer's Market on Wednesday, April 24th where we will be available to update you on all things Mt. Hood.
People’s Food Co-op
5% for Bark, Sunday, April 21st 8am-10pm
3029 SE 21st Ave.

April 25th, Good Neighbor Pizzeria is hosting a benefit for Bark. Come learn how you can protect Mt. Hood’s forests in 2013 while proceeds from the night support Bark.
Good Neighbor Pizzeria
Thursday April, 25th, 5pm-11pm
800 NE Dekum St.


Bark Tales
We’re hiring a Program Director! Help shape Mt. Hood’s future.

In Bark’s 14-year history we’ve announced many momentous victories: the discontinuation of old-growth logging in Mt. Hood National Forest, the withdrawal of NW Natural’s proposed Palomar Pipeline, the adoption of the nation’s best Off-Highway Vehicle plan, and the cancellation of thousands of acres of proposed logging. And that’s just the short list!
 
Victories like these are inspiring and have made a real difference for our public forest and watersheds, yet Bark envisions even more for Mt. Hood National Forest: we imagine a place where ecological restoration and quiet recreation are prioritized over commercial extraction, and where communities that are invested in the health of this public forest help to make it a national model for clean drinking water, quiet recreation access, and abundant wildlife habitat.

Do you want to be part of making this vision a reality? If so, please apply to join the team! Check our webpage for more information about our current opening for a new Program Director, and for instructions to apply. Applications due April 12th.


Bark Bites
Zombie Jazz and new Mt. Hood management

The Jazz Timber Sale has been resurrected! Just three months after the Forest Service withdrew its controversial proposal to log 2,000 acres in the Collawash Watershed of Mt. Hood National Forest, the Forest Service has re-proposed the sale!

Meanwhile, Mt. Hood Forest Supervisor Chris Worth is on indefinite administrative leave, leaving the management direction of Mt. Hood National Forest in uncertainty. Is there a connection between leadership shifts on Mt. Hood and the return of the Jazz Timber Sale?  Will Supervisor Worth be replaced by a new Forest Supervisor who better understands the needs of Cascadian ecosystems? Will our new Forest Supervisor continue the legacy of Mt. Hood’s historic efforts on road decommissioning or will they instead pursue more and more commercial extraction in Portland’s backyard forest?

Bark will continue to monitor the leadership shift on Mt. Hood and keep you up to date. And of course we will revitalize our fight against the ‘zombie’ Jazz Timber Sale to ensure protection of the most geologically unstable watershed in Mt. Hood National Forest and prevent the set-back of years of road decommissioning work Clackamas County’s drinking watershed. Read more about the new Jazz decision here.


Hood Hydrology
A million pounds of salt at Timberline

Did you know that nearly one million pounds of salt is applied every summer to the Palmer Icefield above Timberline Lodge?  RLK & Company,  which manages Timberline Lodge and  is proposing to construct the Timberline Mountain Bike Trails and Skills Park, uses this massive quantity of salt to maintain appropriate conditions for year-round ski and snowboard recreation.

Now, can you guess where that salt ends up? The answer, at least in part, is Still Creek and the Salmon River: two salmon-bearing streams that a 2004 US Geological Survey Study shows to have unusually high concentrations of chloride, a component of the salt compounds applied at Timberline.

Run-off from Timberline’s ski slopes is already causing watershed health impacts at the headwaters and downstream of Still Creek, but RLK & Company's plans to augment its summer activities with 17 miles of new downhill bike trails amplifies concerns over sediment delivery to this salmon-bearing stream. Check out our aquatics White Paper, Protecting Freshwater Resources on Mt. Hood National Forest: Recommendations for Policy Change, to see the expert scientific research and policy recommendations regarding Timberline's impact to the headwaters of Still Creek. And be sure to read the Bike Portland guest editorial by our volunteer board member, Amy Harwood, to understand Bark’s concerns with the proposed Timberline Mountain Bike Trails and Skills Park and why we continue to oppose this development.