Woodsmen, spare those trees!

Conservationists bidding on U.S. Forest Service (USFS) timber leases hoping to save trees are in for a rude awakening - unless they oil up borrowed chainsaws, they could be arrested, because the current rules make it illegal to bid on the leases without logging plans. But three environmental groups have filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USFS' parent agency, to change the rules.

Last winter, the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance (NWEA), the Oregon Natural Resources Council (ONRC) and the Southwest Center for Biodiversity submitted the petition, which would give the USFS the option of awarding certain timber sales to the highest bidders regardless of their intention to log. The petitioners say that the government should accept the bid "most advantageous to the U.S. on the basis of total value." Their proposal leaves open for negotiation the time frame non-logging rights would last, but the groups want to use standard logging rotations - from 60 to 120 years - as a starting point.

Environmentalists are not necessarily trying to gain access to every timber sale. The petition would allow USFS - which manages 191 million acres, mostly in the West - to reject conservation bids if it has valid objectives that go beyond timber quotas, such as restoration or rejuvenation of a site.

"There are many valid economic as well as conservation reasons not to log," says Mark Hubbard, an ONRC spokesman. Environmentalists point to recent reports that USFS logging operations lost $234 million in 1995 as proof that its current method of subsidizing timber extraction isn't working. The petition would provide environmentalists with another way of protecting wildlife habitat and old-growth forests, but Hubbard is quick to point out that it would also give communities a way to protect drinking water supplies, fisheries, watersheds, open space and recreation.

Mitch Friedman, NWEA executive director, sees the petition as a way of "exposing the soft underbelly of USFS." Last year, NWEA submitted the highest bid for a 275-acre timber sale in the Okanogan National Forest in north-central Washington. The bid was disqualified because no trees would have been cut.

Jack Ward Thomas, the former USFS chief, thinks the agency should be open to change, but wonders if the petitioners have considered other aspects of timber sales, such as providing raw material and jobs, meeting biological objectives and stimulating local economies. "It needs a complete policy review and analysis of the ramifications," Thomas says CONTACT: Northwest Ecosystem Alliance, 1421 Cornwall Avenue, Suite 201, Bellingham, WA 98225-4519/[phone]; Oregon Natural Resource Council, 5825 North Greeley Avenue, Portland, OR 97217/[phone].