Environmentalists File Suit Over Bush Plan

The League of Wilderness Defend- early November, said that in the High ers filed suit in Portland, Or., claiming Roberts sale, less than lOVo of the the Bush administration's rules for sal- trees were "crowned" by fire, and that vaging timber are unsound and being flames mostly burned underbrush and applied illegally. low limbs.

The suit claims that the U.S. Forest Service, in approving the High Roberts Fire Salvage, abused its discretion in applying rules for cutting dead and dying stands, and plans to harvest living, old-growth timber. The suit charges the Forest Service with ignoring the effects cutting would have on local wildlife. and asks to set aside logging rules because they did not undergo environmental analysis. Lawyers for the group are seeking an injunction to temporarily stop the sale.

In July 2002, a fire burned 13,535 acres of the 388,000-acre Malheur National Forest. The sale is for 209 acres along the southern border of the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness.

Three other Oregon salvage sales were challenged in federal court this year, including the Monument, Toolbox and Flagtail timber sales.

Ralph Bloemers, an attorney for the Cascade Resources Advocacy Group, which filed the most recent suit in

He said the lawsuit is based on a systematic scientific survey. Bloemers accompanied experts into the forest, where they took pictures of large, green ponderosa pines and grand firs marked with blue spray paint, and pictures of new seedlings popping up, elk droppings and woodpeckers.

"Seventy percent or more are live, green, healthy trees and many of them are old growth, in excess of the diameter cap that allows them to be cut. This fire was two years ago. The forest is regenerating," Bloemers said.

Prairie City Ranger District forester Ken Kincaid said the Forest Service's methods to determine tree mortality focus on fire damage to root systems, and whether the tree is able to overcome the damage.

"Trees that appear green could really be slowly starving to death because they were girdled by the fire," Kincaid said. "It may not die immediately. It may take a year or two for the tree to turn brown and die."

However, not everyone agrees with Kincaid and these methods.

Dan Becker, a retiree from the Prairie City Ranger District, said the new methods for identifying damaged trees have not been validated.

Becker said he visited study Plots in the Malheur forest and found that in preliminary results from two years, only 37o of the trees marked in the "moderate severity class" have died. Of trees in the "high severity class," only 30Vo have died, Becker said.

LMC, Keymark Offer Software

Lumbermens Merchandising CorP. and Keymark Enterprises, Boulder, Co., have joined forces to offer KeyBuild, a design software system, to LMC's pro dealers.

Dealers and their builder customers can use the software to automate home building tasks such as design, architectural, structural engineering and field implementation.

LMC v.p. Vern Dando commented, "We believe that the Keymark software will be an effective tool to help the builder lower their costs and become more efficient."