Dear BLM,
I am writing to urge you to cancel the Outlaw Ridge timber project plans to log mature and old-growth forests. This project would log up to 814 acres of public forests that currently provide carbon storage, clean water, and habitat for Endangered Species Act listed species including the northern spotted owl, which continues to decline rangewide due to factors including habitat loss. I am also concerned about how this project would degrade water quality and quantity, considering that the surrounding area has been heavily clearcut by private industrial timber companies or post-fire logged following the 2020 wildfires. Older forests provide necessary habitat for imperiled species, retain more moisture than young timber plantations, and are more resilient to uncharacteristically severe wildfires.
I understand that the BLM is required to produce timber from the Harvest Land Base, but these lands should not be treated as a sacrifice zone. I strongly encourage the agency to meet timber production goals by limiting commercial logging to stands that are under 80 years old, as proposed in Alternative 6 in the draft Environmental Assessment. No scientific justification exists for logging our last remaining mature and old-growth forests.
Forests put at risk by this ill-advised project are some of the most carbon-dense in the world, with the potential to sequester more carbon on an ongoing basis than almost any ecosystem on earth. Removing trees releases stored carbon into the atmosphere, prevents forests from continuing to draw down climate pollution, damages carbon-storing soils, and reduces moisture content. It would take many decades for the remaining logged or replanted forests to reach that carbon storage capacity again – time we do not have if we are going to mitigate the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
I am also worried about lasting impacts to the North Santiam River watershed. Logging alongside creeks in the project area will introduce sediment, reduce shade, and increase stream temperatures when fish need cool, clean water to survive. This area is still recovering from the impacts of the 2020 wildfires and needs the remaining mature and old-growth forests to stay standing.
Under all alternatives, please consider shifting logging methods from ground based to cable yarding to address these impacts, and implement wet weather hauling restrictions to reduce sediment delivery to streams and improve safety for operators and local community members. BLM should utilize existing roads to implement the project and consider decommissioning roads wherever possible.
Finally, BLM must shift its “restoration” goals away from commercial profit and toward real, science-based restoration. The agency should undertake a lighter-touch thinning regime only in those stands under 80 years old that have resulted from overstocked plantations.
l look forward to reviewing your revised project proposal.
Thank you.
