This November, Cascadia Wildlands and supporters rallied against the Aloha Trout project just a few miles east of the community of Alsea, Oregon.
This Bureau of Land Management logging project would log and build new roads through 1,800 acres of public forest in the middle of Oregon’s Coast Range. While out in the forest, Cascadia Wildlands saw salmon spawning in Honey Grove creek which runs through the project area. Logging in forests near watersheds can cause grave impacts to coastal coho salmon, chinook salmon, steelhead, pacific lamprey, and more.
Alongside Honey Grove and Seeley Creeks, you’ll find previously clear cut forest and several pockets of lush older forest and legacy trees that reach 130 years old or more. These pockets likely contribute greatly to the health of the region’s watershed.
We have received over 600 public comments in opposition to the Aloha Trout project from CW supporters and Alsea locals. Here is one written by Timothy Cooke. Thank you Timothy for letting us share your story.
Several sections have been edited for clarity.
Dear public land managers,
I am a 40-year-old architect who currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon. I grew up in Alsea and maintain a strong connection to the community and the landscape in Alsea. My family moved to Alsea in the late 1980s when I was five years old. Many of my earliest and happiest memories include spending countless hours exploring the forests around our house, hiking with my parents, learning to identify native plants and animals, building forts in the woods, playing in the many streams that flow into the Alsea River, and picking wild salmon berries that grow in the riparian areas of these creeks. In the summer, my younger brother and I would ride our bikes across Alsea Hwy and up Honey Grove Road to what we called the “cattle grate road” (you can find this road as part of the timber project’s plans) and explore Honey Grove Creek for hours on end.
When I was a little older, I began hunting for chanterelle mushrooms in the forests around our house, including on the Bureau of Land Management land that is proposed to be cut as part of the Aloha Trout Forest Management Project. Our family loved hunting for chanterelles and to this day, I look forward to hunting for them every fall in these areas when the rainy season begins. When I was a teenager, in the late 1990s, I began mountain biking as a hobby with a group of friends. We biked on dirt trails that were created by dirt bike riders and 4-wheelers. These recreation trails were located on the south side of Honey Grove Road in forested land.
In addition, my family spent many, many summer days swimming in the North fork of the Alsea River at Clemens park. Seeley Creek flows into the Alsea River at Clemens Park. This park is a public amenity that the Alsea community relies on to this day for recreation, fishing, and access to intact and healthy ecosystems, and I fear this park would be negatively impacted by the proposed harvests in the Seeley Creek watershed.
After carefully reading the scoping letter and studying the map for the Aloha Trout Forest project, I am deeply concerned with the level of harvest that is proposed in both the “harvest land base moderate intensity areas” areas as well as the highly sensitive riparian areas of the many drainages that flow into the Honey Grove Creek and Seeley Creek.
The removal of up to 70% of the trees within the project’s riparian areas and up to 95% of the trees in the “harvest land base moderate intensity” areas will dramatically alter the ecology of these forests for decades to come. Particularly, while the harvest land base is designated to produce timber volume, a 95% cut is far from “moderate” and will have a profoundly negative impact on the fish-bearing streams that flow through these proposed harvest areas.
Honey Grove Creek is one of the best Coho Salmon tributaries in the Alsea River basin and has already been negatively impacted by recent, intensive logging on private forest land that abuts the proposed Bureau of Land Management project.
I ask that the Bureau of Land Management consider canceling or dramatically scaling back this project due to the negative impact it will have on the residents of the Alsea community, and in particular, the residents that live on Honey Grove Road. This project would disrupt their livelihoods and quality of life. Impacts would include noisy road building and logging activities, run-off from logging and road building activities, and herbicide exposure. This level of logging will impact the drinking water quality for the families that rely on creeks and springs that flow from BLM land. It will also eliminate access to existing mountain bike trails and hiking trails on Bureau of Land Management land that have been carefully maintained over the years. By cutting these forests, the Bureau of Land Management will be reducing the public’s access to the many benefits that these healthy and intact forests currently provide.
If this project does proceed, please consider increasing the percentage of trees that will be retained in the HLB_MITA areas as well as the riparian areas. Even a modest increase in the proportion of trees left on the landscape will have dramatic ecological benefits. Benefits would include the increased retention of structurally intact forest habitat patches, retention of areas with minimal forest floor and understory disturbance, retention of multiple vegetation layers, retention of diverse tree sizes, species, and conditions. With higher levels of retention both the visual and environmental impacts of harvests are dramatically reduced.
I am concerned about climate change and recognize the values that forests provide for carbon sequestration and storage. Increasing the percentage of trees that are retained will only increase carbon sequestration. It will also increase the forest’s climate resilience as the effects of climate change increase in the coming years and decades.
I am also concerned about species who depend on these forests for habitat, including northern spotted owls and marbled murrelets. These stands have the potential to grow and develop into prime habitat for both species.
Please evaluate the full range of environmental impacts associated with logging and road building proposed for the Aloha Trout Forest project and do not treat these forests as a sacrifice zone that will only produce timber harvests. Develop an alternative approach that protects clean drinking water, recreational opportunities, connected fish and wildlife habitat, fire resilience, and carbon sequestration. Please incorporate community feedback into project planning efforts and protect forest values beyond timber production.
I have a five year old daughter that I hope to be able to take mushroom hunting on these BLM forest lands that are proposed to be harvested. If this project proceeds as proposed, I would no longer be able to take my daughter mushroom hunting in these areas.
I look forward to your response to these comments, and request that you notify me when a decision is made.
Sincerely,
Timothy Cooke