Standing Up for Forests and Critters
A brief review of recent KS Wild activities in northern California:
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Klamath National Forest staff, in the field with KS Wild Conservation Director George Sexton, un-marking old-growth previously targeted for logging.
2) In July 2006, KS Wild protected 744 acres old-growth forest in the Salmon River watershed in northwest California, a well-known refuge for endangered salmon. Judge Morrison England agreed with us that the Forest Service had pulled a “bait and switch” with the public by analyzing the effect of thinning small trees on paper while marking ancient trees for logging in the field in the Meteor Timber Sale. This ruling confirms the importance of “groundtruthing” whereby KS Wild staff and volunteers field-check and photograph illegal timber sales so as to protect the rare and endangered critters that rely on these forests.
3) On the heels of the Meteor victory, KS Wild went to the field in 2007 with the Klamath National Forest and influenced them to un-mark some of the oldest trees slated for logging in the Knob Timber Sale, also along the Salmon River. We continue to work with the Forest Service to improve the Knob Timber Sale.
4) In 2005, KS Wild prevailed in court and halted the illegal 1,026 acre Westpoint old-growth timber sale in the Scott River watershed near the Marble Mountain Wilderness of northern California. The timber sale would have logged thousands of ancient trees while leaving behind small-diameter ladder fuels.
Rather than repackage the destructive old-growth sale, we are pleased that the Forest Service reacted to the court ruling by going back to the drawing board to develop a new project that focuses exclusively on thinning small-diameter trees. In contrast with the planning process for the illegal Westpoint old-growth timber sale in which public comments were ignored, in planning the new Point timber sale the Forest Service worked collaboratively with concerned locals in the Lower Scott River Fire Safe Council to develop a project that will thin young small-diameter trees in strategic locations so as to help implement their Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
Siskiyou Mountain Salamander (Plethodon stormi). Photo by Gary Nafis.
6) In response to a suit brought by KS Wild, a California Superior Court Judge ruled in 2007 that the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) cannot lawfully strip California Endangered Species Act protections from the Scott Bar Salamander. Formerly considered a subpopulation of the Siskiyou Mountain Salamander, which is listed as a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act, the Scott Bar Salamander was identified as a new species in May 2005. Rather than herald its discovery, DFG immediately informed timber companies that the salamander had lost protection, which would have allowed several old-growth timber sales to destroy salamander habitat.
Siskiyou Mountain salamanders are found on approximately 200 sites in northern California and in southern Oregon. The Scott Bar salamander is known to inhabit only 27 sites around Scott Bar on the Klamath River.
The court’s decision was important because it ensures that newly discovered species will continue to receive protection until the Fish and Game Commission has a chance to review their status in light of the thorough scientific review and public comment required under the law. Recently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that federal Endangered Species Act protections for these species are likely warranted.
7) We are currently working on several other projects in California, including the Southside Mt. Ashland, Horse Heli and Orleans Fuels Projects as well as the Trinity Forest Restoration Collaborative.
