Plan to log Biscuit Fire draws flood of comments.Byline: Scott Maben The Register-Guard A lot of people have something to say about a U.S. Forest Service proposal to log and replant re·plant v. To reattach an organ, limb, or other body part surgically to the original site. n. An organ, limb, or body part that has been replanted. trees in parts of Southern Oregon's Siskiyou Mountains The Siskiyou Mountains are a coastal mountain range in the northern Klamath Mountains in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the United States. They extend in an arc for approximately 100 mi (160 km) from east of Crescent City, California northeast along the north that burned in the Biscuit Fire The Biscuit Fire was a wildfire that took place in 2002 that burned nearly 500,000 acres (2,000 km²) in the Siskiyou National Forest in the states of Oregon and California. It was named for Biscuit Creek in southern Oregon. of 2002. The Siskiyou Siskiyou refers to:
A river, about 322 km (200 mi) long, rising in the Cascade Range of southwest Oregon and flowing generally south and southwest to the Pacific Ocean. National Forest received about 23,000 letters, e-mails and faxes by this week's deadline. The flood of comments came in response to the agency's environmental review of several alternatives, including Forest Supervisor Scott Conroy's preferred choice, to log 518 million board feet across about 30,000 acres. The public feedback will be sorted and analyzed an·a·lyze tr.v. an·a·lyzed, an·a·lyz·ing, an·a·lyz·es 1. To examine methodically by separating into parts and studying their interrelations. 2. Chemistry To make a chemical analysis of. 3. over the next few weeks, then compiled for Conroy's review, said Judy McHugh, spokeswoman for the national forest. "We look forward to reading the public comments," McHugh said. "It's kind of a dynamic and exciting time." While every submission will be reviewed initially, only "substantive" comments - those that offer specific suggestions for the environmental review - will be included in the version of the document that accompanies Conroy's final decision, she said. A substantive comment may be one that "points out a mistake we made or offers a suggestion for a new analysis," McHugh said. Officials expect hundreds of the comments will be duplicates, submitted from templates set up by environmental organizations or other advocacy groups. "The vast majority of letters were in electronic format," McHugh said. "Among those electronic letters, many, many of them - and we don't have the exact breakdown - were letters that were very similar to each other." They appeared to be form letters originating from several Web sites, she said. The Forest Service said last spring it intended to disregard mass e-mails, form letters and printed postcards on grounds they add little to the debate over forest decisions. But after civil liberties groups and activists complained, the agency backed down late last year. Rolf Skar, campaign coordinator for the Siskiyou Regional Education Project, a Southern Oregon This article is about the southern region of the U.S. state of Oregon. For the University, see Southern Oregon University. Southern Oregon is a region of the U.S. conservation group, admitted his organization's Web site included a feedback form with sample language that supporters used to send in their comments. "We really encouraged people to participate," Skar said. "One of the easiest ways for people to do that is to work off of templates." Just because many comments are identical or similar should not diminish the message, he said. "Every comment anyone submits has value to it," he said. Conroy is expected to make a decision this spring, hopefully by mid-April, McHugh said. Salvage logging Salvage logging is the practice of felling trees in forest areas that have been damaged by fire. In the United States, salvage logging is a controversial issue for two main reasons. and other work could begin this summer, unless administrative appeals delay the project. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion