Artley letter: Timber sale comments

Please submit comments to the U.S. Forest Service if you enjoy outdoor recreation in our national forests. If a planned joint timber sale on three national forests in Northeast Oregon is allowed, it might set precedent for similar sized sales on other national forests across the nation.

The Wallowa-Whitman, Umatilla and Ochoco National Forest are accepting comments on an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) analyzing the Blue Mountains Forest Resiliency project until April 2. If finalized, the EIS then will approve commercial logging 574.2 square miles and building approximately 335 miles of sediment producing road. Not only will the trees be gone, but the streams will be muddy.

The forest plans for each forest will also be amended to allow old-growth logging of trees greater than 21 inches in diameter.

Comments should be emailed to r6restorationprojects@fs.fed.us.

Additional information is posted at the forest’s website at http://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=48582

You can also call forest supervisor Forson at (541) 416-6625.

This story was originally published February 21, 2016 at 11:11 PM with the headline "Artley letter: Timber sale comments."