CONTROVERSIAL SOLO TIMBER SALE TO BE RE-AUCTIONED: BARK CITES NEW INFORMATION AND DEMANDS CANCELLATION

Thursday, February 6, 2003: On the eve of the re-auction of the controversial Solo Timber Sale, BARK, the watchdog organization of Mt. Hood National Forest, has issued a letter to the Forest Service urging the cancellation of the Solo timber sale due to significant new information including: • Finding of second rare Old Growth Specklebelly lichen • Unbuffered Streams • Failure of the Peavine Sale to mitigate road density "This new information clearly reveals the faults in the planning of the old growth Solo timber sale. The best way to protect our drinking watersheds and old growth forests is to cancel the Solo sale," said Bark forest defense coordinator Sarah Wald. The Solo timber sale was originally auctioned on July 30, 2002 while over a hundred citizens rallied outside the Mt. Hood Forest Service Headquarters. The sale was bought that day by Thomas Creek Lumber, convicted twice of timber theft from public land. In an unexpected turn of events, Thomas Creek was not awarded the contract. The Forest Service will be re-auctioning the Solo sale on Friday February 7, 2003 at 8 am at the Mt. Hood Forest Service Headquarters. Protests are planned by several environmental groups. The Solo Sale will clear-cut 167 acres of old growth forest in the threatened Oak Grove Watershed. The sale includes some of the largest trees in the Clackamas Ranger District and some of the biggest Pacific Yews in Mt. Hood National Forest. Nearly 1/3 of the logging planned for the Clackamas Ranger District targets the Oak Grove, making the watershed one of the most threatened areas on Mt. Hood National Forest. The majority of the Oak Grove sales include clear-cutting old growth and mature forest. Solo is considered one of the most egregious timber sale in the Oak Grove due to the size of the sale, the size of the trees, impacts to riparian areas, and impacts to biodiversity including the Old Growth Specklebelly and groves of Pacific Yews. ISSUES IN FOCUS: SECOND LICHEN: After the official Forest Services Survey and Manage surveys were finished on Solo, a sample of the very rare lichen, Old Growth Specklebelly, was discovered by a lichenologist in Solo unit 14. Another more recent discovery has been made in unit 12. After this second discovery following shortly on the heals of the Forest Service surveys, Bark can no longer assume that the presence of the first found lichen was an anomaly. The logical conclusion is that there is more undiscovered Old Growth Specklebelly within Solo, and that Forest Service attempts to survey for this rare category A lichen have been inadequate. UNBUFFERED STREAMS: A recent walk through a unit of the Solo sale has revealed another lapse in Forest Service documentation, an unmarked flowing intermittent stream in unit 12. This stream has been given no buffer protecting the water quality from the expected logging. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this omission is that the stream is documented in the Forest Services own 'Clackamas River Ranger District Map,' and this map shows it flowing through Solo unit 12 and into Solo unit 14, said Wald. The failure to provide any buffers for this stream indicates yet another breakdown in the field preparation of the Solo sale. ROADS: The Solo Environmental Assessment (EA) admitted that it was a problem to increase the open road density beyond standards in Mt. Hood Land and Resource Management Plan. Yet the EA went on to say that the problem would be mitigated by closing a road in the adjacent Peavine timber sale (which was logged several years ago). However, the road closure in the Peavine area has not occurred, and BARK has since been told by Forest Service staff that there may not be funding to close the road in the Peavine area. According to the Solo Decision Notice, closing road 205 in the Peavine area was the mitigation measure to offset the impacts of relocating road 5732 in association with the Solo sale. Not only has this road closure not occurred, but it now seems unlikely that this important mitigation measure will ever occur. This discovery raises serious questions about the impacts of increased road density in the Solo sale area, and the validity of Forest Service environmental assessments. For a copy of the full letter, please contact Bark: http://www.bark-out.org [email protected] (503) 331-0374 For more info on the Solo timber sale, visit Bark's Solo webpage, at: http://www.bark-out.org/tsdb/detail.php?sale=solo