Two arrested at timber sale protest

By Vickie Aldous

Ashland Daily Tidings

A crowd of protesters converged on the Jackson County Fairgrounds Exposition Park in Central Point this morning to express opposition to the Medford District Bureau of Land Management's auction of timber sales.

At least two people were arrested as of mid-morning - including Jay Lininger of the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center in Ashland - for disorderly conduct after allegedly stepping in front of vehicles attempting to enter the auction site, according to Lee Fox, U.S. Forest Service patrol captain for the Rogue, Siskiyou and Umpqua National Forests.

Forest Service and Jackson County Sheriff's Office personnel were on hand to back up BLM staff. The law enforcement personnel kept most of the protesters outside the gated area where the auction was held at a fairgrounds pavilion.

The BLM was scheduled to auction six timber sales covering 3,900 acres, including the Poole Hill and Conde Shell sales along Dead Indian Memorial Road northeast of Ashland, and another three sales covering 36 acres and reserved for small timber operators, according to Karen Gillespie, public affairs officer for the Medford District BLM.

The sign-waving, drum-beating protesters - some dressed as monarch butterflies - said they were opposed to the six major timber sales auctioned today, and they also called for an end to commercial logging on public lands.

"It's time that the BLM wake up and realize this is the 21^st century and it's time for them to get out of the old growth logging business," said Joseph Vaile of the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center. "Public support has never been stronger for protection of our last remaining old growth."

About half of the protesters were from Ashland, while others came from other Southern Oregon communities and as far away as Portland and Southern California, according to Ashland resident and protester Noah Dussell.

Protesters said 75 percent of Oregon and Washington residents support an end to old growth logging on public lands, citing a recent poll by the firm Davis & Hibbitts, Inc.

They said the timber harvests would damage wildlife habitat while increasing wildfire hazards by removing fire-resilient older trees and leaving behind smaller, more flammable material.

However, Gillespie said the timber sales will make the forests more wildfire and disease resistant.

She said no clear-cuts are planned, with 94 percent of the acres scheduled to undergo thinning and stand density management.

To further reduce wildfire hazard, left-over slash from logging operations will be treated immediately through cutting and scattering, hand-piling and burning, chipping and scattering, and underburning, according to Gillespie.

While some trees that are up to 200 years old would be cut, most of the older trees are infested with disease and mistletoe, a parasitic plant, she said.

"They will be cut to prevent the spread of disease and mistletoe to the younger, healthy trees in the understory," Gillespie said.

The BLM also has created buffer zones around critical habitat to protect sensitive species, such as ocean-going fish and spotted owls, she said.

Gillespie said while the BLM is authorized to cut up to 57 million board feet of timber during the 2002 fiscal year - which started in October - it plans to only auction off 34 million board feet during the year.