Posted: Wednesday, October 14, 2009
EUGENE, OR - US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar
today announced a new plan for managing federal forests in Western
Oregon. Conservationists say the plan is not ideal. KLCC’s Rachael
McDonald reports.
Last July the Obama Administration scrapped the Bureau of Land
Management’s Western Oregon Plan Revision.
Secretary Salazar says the new plan will provide economic certainty
for Oregon’s timber industry while protecting endangered species.
He announced 62 timber sales on BLM land. Dan Kruse with Cascadia
Wildlands in Eugene says he’s pleased most of the proposed sales
are thinning projects in younger forests.
Kruse: “The problem with it is that they’re continuing to propose
these controversial projects like Fall Creek, like some of the others
in the Eugene district and the Medford district where they’re
proposing clear-cutting, where they’re proposing logging in other
stands and it’s not the kind of change we’re hoping for.”
The plan proposes logging 266 acres in the Fall Creek area outside
Eugene. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Peter
DeFazio called the plan a good first step.
Copyright 2009 KLCC.