Stop Lawless Logging on Your Forests:
Cancel the California Salvage Sales

Posted 11/22/96

The notorious Salvage Logging Law was signed by President Bill Clinton in July, 1995. It allows so-called salvage logging– the cutting of allegedly dead, dying or diseased trees– to include cutting healthy trees and exempts the affected timber sales from review under federal environmental laws. Lacking these legal tools, activists have been unable in many cases to safeguard irreplaceable ancient forests, roadless areas and other sensitive ecosystems in our national forests.

Because California is home to 18 national forests, the Salvage Logging Law has caused tremendous harm to ancient forests in this state. Due to public pressure the Clinton administration already has delayed or canceled destructive logging projects that were slated to go forward under the law. Clinton also has admitted that signing the salvage bill was the worst mistake he has made. The salvage law expires on Dec. 31, 1996, but all timber sales awarded before this date will become unchallengeable, no matter when the logging actually takes place.

Your help is needed to convince Clinton to cancel the following sales still active. Please write to the officials listed below and encourage them to scrub the following timber sales on national forests in California:

1.

Highest priority is the CANON timber sale in the Klamath National Forest. This 2190-acre project would log ancient forest and increase sedimentation to Kelsey and Clear creeks– important spawning streams for threatened salmon and steelhead trout fisheries. The sale also would take out timber in the Box Camp Roadless Area, which, if kept in pristine condition, eventually could be added to the Marble Mountain Wilderness Area.

2.

The PILOT CREEK / EAST HELICOPTER sale and the PILOT CREEK NORTH sale in the Six Rivers National Forest would cut down over 900 acres of the Pilot Creek Roadless Area and remove trees from sensitive riparian zones. This sale threatens prime steelhead spawning habitat.

3.

Located in the Mendocino National Forest, the SADDLE sale would remove ancient forest in the Eel River watershed. The Eel's salmon and steelhead fisheries depend on old-growth forest to provide the cold, clear water needed for their survival.

4.

The UPPER POOR BOY sale in the Toiyabe National Forest would take out ancient forest in the Raymond Peak Roadless Area adjacent to the Mokelumne Wilderness. The area is home to several threatened animal species.

5.

The SAMPLE sale in the Sierra National Forest, near the Kaiser Wilderness Area, would cut down rare old-growth Jeffrey pines.

6.

Portions of the Siskiyou Roadless Area in the Dillon Creek watershed are threatened by old-growth logging in the OUTSIDE sale in the Klamath National Forest. Dillon Creek contains a significant percentage of California's remaining summer-run steelhead population.

7.

The TREASURE sales in the Tahoe National Forest encompass over 14,000 acres. This project would construct excessive new roads in a watershed already heavily roaded and logged.

8.

Rare ancient Port Orford cedar groves would fall in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest if the DEER THIN sale goes through. This sale would commercially log trees from an old-growth reserve set aside by President Clinton's Option 9 directive.

9.

The BEAR salvage sale in the Klamath National Forest would devastate forestlands in the watershed of a proposed Wild and Scenic River (wilderness-status designation for a river), which is spawning habitat for the threatened coho salmon and steelhead.

Call and/or FAX the following officials between now and Dec. 31, 1996:

Dan Glickman
Secretary of Agriculture
U.S.D.A.
14th & Independence Ave SW
Washington, DC 20250
202/720-3631 (phone)
202/720-2166 (FAX)

Kathleen McGinty
Director
Council on Environmental Quality
Old Executive Office Building, Room 360
Washington, DC 20501
202/456-6224 (phone)
202/456-2710 (FAX)

Demand the immediate withdrawal of these salvage logging sales.