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Forest Service Agrees to Wyden
Request to Split Biscuit Plan
Plan should allow some salvage, jobs
to move forward while courts resolve thornier issues
June 1, 2004
Washington, DC – Today,
the Forest Service agreed to pursue U.S. Senator Ron Wyden’s
proposal to split its salvage plans (Records of Decision) in the
Biscuit fire area so some salvage can proceed while more controversial
plans are likely to be contested in the courts.
In April of this year, Wyden
wrote U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman (text follows)
asking that the Biscuit salvage plan be broken down to three separate
proposals – one each for matrix, Late Successional Reserves
(LSRs), and inventoried roadless areas. At the time, Agriculture
Undersecretary Mark Rey termed the proposal “constructive”
and agreed to look into it. The final Biscuit proposal released
today splits the salvage efforts into three Records of Decision
for matrix, LSRs and inventoried roadless areas.
“I originally proposed
splitting the Biscuit salvage plan because I wanted to find a
solution that allows Oregonians to get jobs this summer before
a lot of that downed timber degrades,” said Wyden. “The
administration listened and I am very appreciative. I now hope
that the federal court will quickly address the legal challenges,
particularly in the less controversial matrix and LSR areas, and
allow our guys to get back to work.”
# # #
NOTE: The full text of Wyden’s
April letter to Secretary Veneman follows:
April 2, 2004
The Honorable Ann Veneman
Secretary
U.S. Department of Agriculture
14th & Independence SW
Washington, D.C. 20090-6090
Dear Secretary Veneman,
I write today to urge you to
help ensure that salvage operations move forward quickly in the
Biscuit fire area in Oregon, and that the jobs that arise from
those operations be given, to the greatest extent possible, to
Oregon workers.
Recent articles appearing in
the Eugene Register-Guard and on the Associated Press wire suggest
that additional jobs arising from the Biscuit salvage might not
materialize in Oregon due to the flexibility of the modern wood
products industry and the possibility that non-Oregon mills will
receive the salvaged wood. I believe the people of my state, who
bore the burden and fears of the Biscuit fire, and who now bear
the burden of a half million acre burn area, should have a strong
preference in receiving the benefits of any job creation coming
out of this disaster. The National Fire Plan (P.L. 108-108) allows
the Secretary, “in order to provide employment and training
opportunities to people in rural communities . . . to award contracts
. . . to local, private, non-profit or cooperative entities,”
which would include in this situation local loggers, drivers and
processors. I urge you to exercise your authority to the fullest
extent possible to put thousands of unemployed and under-employed
Oregonians back to work.
Of course, no jobs will result
from the Biscuit salvage until a Record of Decision is approved
by the Forest Service, and by the courts should legal challenges
emerge. As you know, in the course of the debate over the Healthy
Forests Restoration Act, I proposed and fought for a streamlined
process to navigate the administrative and legal challenges sure
to be confronted in any effort to salvage burned timber in the
Biscuit Fire area in Southern Oregon. The legislation I put forward
with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (S.1352) included a demonstration project
that would have allowed the Biscuit salvage effort to go forward
under the expedited administrative and judicial process of our
healthy forest initiative. Our bill would have moved the Biscuit
salvage forward more quickly, without affecting the scientific
process, public participation, or environmental protection.
You will recall that the Administration
rejected my proposal on the Biscuit salvage during our negotiations
over the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, even while simultaneously
embracing those same administrative and judicial procedure changes
as critical to moving the nation forward on fire prevention and
forest health issues. In my opinion, the Forest Service is now
compounding this earlier mistake by seemingly ignoring the many
legal challenges to come and the inevitable delay that will result
from the current preferred alternative for salvage in the Biscuit
fire.
Your 518 million board feet
draft preferred alternative will inevitably draw legal challenges,
and hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs will be put on hold. Therefore,
I am also writing today to propose a path that can put my constituents
back to work more quickly without trampling the environment or
denying citizens their right to challenge the government in a
court of law.
Specifically, I am writing to
urge you to produce separate Records of Decision for the different
categories of areas contained in your Biscuit salvage proposal.
You will find there is Federal precedent for creating separate
records of decision (Department of Energy (DOE) final EIS) for
the interim management of nuclear materials (DOE/EIS-0220, October
20, 1995) at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina).
By producing separate Records of Decision, areas that are less
controversial are likely to receive quicker approval and salvage,
and won't be held back by the proposed salvage areas where the
legal issues are in greater doubt.
While there are a variety of
ways to accomplish this, one option would be to prepare separate
Records of Decision for:
· matrix areas for all
salvage-related activities that occur outside of inventoried roadless
areas;
· Late Successional Reserve
(LSR) areas in which all salvage-related activities occur outside
of inventoried roadless areas; and,
· salvage-related activities
occurring within inventoried roadless areas.
I urge the Forest Service to
immediately adjust its course so as to avoid gridlock wherever
possible, protect sensitive areas, and ensure that Oregonians
get the jobs that are created. Multiple Records of Decision may
result in salvage and restoration jobs moving forward more quickly,
and exercising your authority to direct jobs to local loggers
and mills will ensure that those jobs go to the people most affected
and most in need.
The best science states that
there is an average 20% loss per year in the value of salvage
timber. Even if there were no legal challenges to the Biscuit
salvage, two years will have passed before salvage logging can
begin, so time is clearly of the essence.
Sincerely,
Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator