Forest cut planned to study effects on spotted owl

Friday December 06, 2002

By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer

SACRAMENTO (AP) The U.S. Forest Service plans to cut 176,000 acres of trees in two northern California national forests over the next decade, the first large-scale study of logging's effects on the protected spotted owl and other species that depend on mature forests.

The service also released its proposed management plan for the Giant Sequoia National Monument created southeast of Fresno by former President Clinton nearly three years ago.

The northern California logging study outrages environmentalists, who said it endangers the owls' habitat and violates the intent of the Sierra Nevada Framework. The framework was supported by many environmental groups because it focuses timber cuts on smaller trees near mountain communities that are at risk from wildfire.

But the framework itself calls for studying of the effects of fire-prevention efforts on threatened wildlife, said Rob MacWhorter, deputy forest supervisor in the Plumas National Forest northeast of Sacramento, where most of the cuts are proposed.

``This is the first study of its kind on a landscape scale. We've had studies like this, but it's been on a much smaller scale,'' MacWhorter said Friday. It will incorporate ``real world forestry practices, so we can really see if what we do has an effect on spotted owls'' and other mature-forest wildlife.

The study is being designed with the Forest Services' Sierra Nevada Research Center in Davis, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and with University of California researchers, he said.

Though 176,000 acres of trees up to 36 inches in diameter will be cut, the project will affect 11 parcels totaling nearly a half-million acres of national forest that make up the study area. The parcels encompass entire watersheds, ranging in size from 45,000 to 79,000 acres, and averaging nearly 56,000 acres.

The ultimate goal is to find ways to protect spotted owl habitat by trimming other forest land to help halt wildfires, MacWhorter said.

But environmentalists suggested the plan amounts to saving spotted owls by indirectly killing them.

``We're talking about (removing) the bulk of the remaining old growth and mature forest when they're done,'' said John Muir Project executive director Chad Hanson. ``It would clearly push the owl toward extinction.''

Much of the forest to be cut is 80 to 120 years old, large trees but not ancient forest, said MacWhorter.

The plan includes clear cutting areas ranging from a half-acre to two acres of everything except oaks or trees with diameters greater than 30 inches, to open up portions of the forest.

Extensive firebreaks 300-400 feet wide would also be cut through the forest, mostly along roads and ridge tops where they would help slow the spread of wildfires.

Swaths of forest adjacent to the firebreaks would be thinned of smaller trees, with larger trees spaced so their crowns don't touch.

Many environmentalists argue too much thinning can dry out the forest floor, and that large trees are more fire resistant. MacWhorter responded that the thinning is needed to stop crown fires that spread from treetop to treetop.

The firebreaks and thinning will be designed to protect mountain communities that could be destroyed by uncontrollable wildfires, he said.

The Forest Service plans to have a draft environmental impact statement ready for public comment in March, and approval by next summer. Logging could begin in a year, barring administrative or court challenges, MacWhorter said.

Farther south, the Forest Service this week released six management alternatives for the Giant Sequoia National Monument.

The release triggers a 90-day comment period on the options, which include different levels of fire and environmental protection, recreation and road-building.

Options include maintaining the current Clinton administration rules, which bar most new roads and emphasize non-motorized activities like hiking. Other options range from opening new roads to closing existing roads.

The Forest Service is recommending the sixth option, which would allow new roads construction. Environmental groups have favored retaining the Clinton-era rules, without having reviewed the other options.

Public hearings are planned over the next two months, with a goal of getting a plan set by next fall.

Clinton drew a local court challenge, which continues on appeal, by creating the monument administratively in April 2000 to protect the giant sequoias. The trees grow only in a narrow band along the western Sierra Nevada.

Several monument groves were threatened last summer by what federal officials called one of the five worst wildfires in California history and the worst ever in the Sequoia National Forest.

On the Net: http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access .gpo.gov

Read the logging study proposal at /2002/pdf/02-30689.pdf

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)