When Congress returns next Monday, there is a strong chance that the Interior Department appropriations bill will be rolled into a huge omnibus spending bill.
There is an equally strong chance that an unprecedented logging provision will be included in that bill--a provision which will override a current judicial proceeding and give the green light to the largest timber sale on America's public lands in modern history.
Senator Gordon Smith, an Oregon Republican, has announced plans to attach a rider to the omnibus bill that will override all environmental laws and prohibit any judicial review for a post-fire logging project on the Siskiyou National Forest in southern Oregon. [1]
This would allow logging on ancient forest and roadless areas of up to 370,000,000 board feet of timber in a 20,000-acre area--enough trees to fill 74,000 log trucks. Citizens would have no right to appeal through the courts.
Also known as the Biscuit Project, such logging would endanger roadless areas, ancient forest reserves, wild and scenic rivers and salmon runs in the Siskiyou Wild and Scenic Rivers Area.
Federal agencies such as the EPA and the Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as independent scientific experts, have said Sen. Smith's rider will likely increase fire risks in the area for up to 30 years. It would also retard the regeneration of old-growth forests. Sediment flowing into streams will choke fish spawning areas.
As much as 40 percent of the units mapped for logging contain live trees. Independent analysts have found that the logging project would cost taxpayers over $40 million, mainly on roadbuilding for timber industry trucks.
The Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area is one of the best remaining refuges for wild native salmon and steelhead left on the Pacific coast. The rivers and streams at risk support 27 runs for Coho salmon, spring and fall Chinook salmon, winter and summer steelhead, coastal cutthroat trout, green sturgeon, white sturgeon and Pacific lamprey.
The Smith rider, and the omnibus bill, appear likely to face Senate action next week. There are also reports that California developers are working to sneak in a rider that would seriously weaken the Endangered Species Act.
[To our subscribers: this is the first of a periodic series of BushGreenwatch reports. We will be developing a formal schedule soon, and will keep you posted. Thank you.]
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TAKE ACTION
Call and fax members of Congress. For contact numbers and information on what to say go to the American Lands Alliance.
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SOURCES:
[1] BushGreenwatch, Jul. 7, 2004.
