Douglas Complex fire update
Josephine County issued an evacuation order for residents living along Poorman Creek
Read MoreJosephine County issued an evacuation order for residents living along Poorman Creek
Read MoreOregonians from across the state will descend on Salem tomorrow morning, October 11, at 9:30 am to demonstrate against the egregious forest practices on state forestlands. The State Land Board, made up of Governor John Kitzhaber, Secretary Kate Brown, and Treasurer Ted Wheeler, oversees management of the 93,000 acre Elliott State Forest, located 45 miles southwest of Eugene, and is expected to adopt a new plan for the Elliott that will increase clearcutting by nearly 40% at their quarterly board meeting tomorrow.
Read MoreQuackenbush says only 18% of the forest is locked, however, Francis Eatherington of Cascadia Wildlands says when including the marked timber sales and buffer zones that closer to 80% of the Elliott is now restricted from public use.
Read MoreIt is unconscionable that ODF would make these types of choices, deciding between actually killing someone or just destroying someone’s property rather than just modify their sales to not threaten adjacent landowners.
Read MoreThe disregard for private property and older public rainforests comes at a time when ODF wants to double the logging on the Elliott as part of its proposed Forest Management Plan, which remains under heavy scrutiny by the public and groups like Cascadia Wildlands. The state is expected to make a final decision on the clearcutting increase by the end of the year.
Read MoreTo paraphrase St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach nonviolence at all times. Use words if necessary.” In the early morning of Tuesday, July 26, the Cascadia Forest Defenders, Earth First! and other activists put up tree...
Read MoreAfter days of unanswered phone calls to Jim Young of the local district Oregon Department of Forestry office, Barbara Shamet has taken her plea to court. This morning Shamet dropped of a petition for an injunction to stop the logging at the Millicoma Between Sale citing a 2009 pre-op report that lists this location as a ‘high landslide hazard’ that threatens her home.
Read MoreIn an email yesterday, ODF has said they are looking into the claims of illegal public process. Unfortunately, it appears the ODF will wait until the hills have been clear cut before coming to any conclusions, thereby denying the public their right to comment on this sale.
Read MoreThe question becomes who is ODF really working for? Clearly they are not working to obtain the maximum amount of revenue for the Common Schools Fund and they seem to have no conscience about creating a high landslide hazard by clear cutting a rainforest with high carbon sequestration value that will endanger adjacent homeowners.
Read MoreShamet, Schwarz and their three children have lived on this 83-acre property between the Elliott State Forest and the West Fork of the Millicoma River for nearly thirty-five years. Three weeks ago, clear cut logging began one thousand feet south of their farm…The farm owners believe this timber sale is illegal.
Read MoreA major weakness with State Forest timber sales is that they are routinely purchased by the same large corporations. Comparatively low award prices reflect a lack of competition which fosters collusion and price fixing. Scott Timber (Roseburg Forest Products) and Swanson, two of the largest public timber sale purchasers, were the only “qualified bidders” listed for Elkhorn. Scott bought the sale for $273.52 per MBF for the Doug-fir, the bid species, and Swanson was second at $272.88. How conveniently close!
Read MoreToday is the last opportunity for citizens to comment on the plan. Activists involved in the action criticized the plan for opening up areas to logging which were previously off limits. They also criticized the plan for increasing clear cutting to boost local timber jobs while not making any decisive moves to regulate or even monitor the large timber export industry which ships logs and jobs overseas.
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