Spilled logs are offshore, headed north.

Byline: LARRY BACON The Register-Guard

A load of 12,000 bundled Douglas fir logs, spilled from a barge in rough seas Tuesday offshore from Depoe Bay, remained at sea off the northern Oregon Coast late Thursday afternoon and appeared headed for Washington waters.

Ensign Matt Botnen, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman, said the logs remained eight to 10 miles offshore, only slightly closer than Wednesday. "It's hard to say exactly when they will make that turn into shore," he said.

The logs were in three groups off the Clatsop County coast, extending from Tillamook Head near Seaside on the south to a buoy off the mouth of the Columbia River. Botnen said the logs appeared to have broken free from the steel straps that bundled them.

Winds up to 24 mph were pushing the logs northward in 20-foot seas at slightly less than 2 miles an hour. One concern, Botnen said, is that some logs were expected to be drawn into the mouth of the Columbia River on an incoming tide about midnight Thursday. Those logs could cause a hazard to navigation, he said.

It was possible that a few logs could drift ashore along the northern Oregon and southern Washington coasts Thursday night, Botnen said, but it remained unclear where the bulk of them might end up.

The state Department of Parks and Recreation, which manages Oregon's beaches, warned people on the beaches to stay away from logs in the surf or on wet sand.

"The ocean is strong enough to pick up the biggest log in the calmest of conditions," said Tom Towslee, a parks spokesman. "These logs can cause serious injuries or even death."

The Coast Guard put out a notice to mariners to watch for floating logs and contacted emergency response agencies in Oregon and Washington so they can notify their coastal counties to be prepared for an influx of logs on the beach. The Columbia River bar pilots also were warned about logs in the river, Botnen said.

A rogue wave caused the log spill when it struck a barge towed by the tug Sea Commander on Tuesday about 30 miles west of Cape Foulweather near Depoe Bay. The logs had been expected to come ashore Thursday along the Oregon Coast north of Nehalem, but winds continued to push them north.

The logs were being shipped from Vancouver, B.C., to Eureka, Calif., for delivery to a Mendocino, Calif., company, Harwood Products. Art Harwood, the company's manager, said they were valued at $1 million and were to be cut into lumber by a mill his company owns in Branscomb, Calif. The logs are no bigger than 15 inches in diameter and up to 40 feet long, he said.

The insurer for the logs has already declared its intent to hire a logging company to salvage them, Harwood said.

Towslee said any salvage operation on Oregon's beaches will require a permit and must be completed in 15 days.

Members of the public can seek a permit for beach salvage of the logs if the owner or insurer chooses not to salvage them or abandons the effort, he said.

No state permit is required to salvage logs from the Columbia River or along its banks, said Monte Turner, a spokesman for the Division of State Lands. He said the owner has the first right of salvage.

Washington Department of Natural Resources officials said they would have to research permit requirements for log salvage from their beaches. The Coast Guard and Oregon parks officials received numerous phone calls from people interested in salvaging the logs.

Towslee said if the insurance company doesn't remove them, he doesn't expect the state will have any trouble disposing of any of the logs that end up on Oregon beaches.