For better or worse, shouts of "Timberrrrr" could echo long and loud in Utah's national forests over the next few years.
U.S. Forest Service managers are proposing an unprecedented amount of logging. There are at least eight large timber "salvage" sales on federal land stretching from Dixie to Cache Valley that range in size from a few hundred acres to several thousand acres. More than 100 million board feet of lumber are expected to be milled from the spruce, pine and fir trees that go down.Loggers find the prospect financially promising. The Forest Service finds the sales necessary to stave off massive beetle infestations and ensure forest health. Environmentalists find the whole thing disgusting.
"I've never seen anything like this in my life," said Dick Carter, of the Utah Wilderness Asso-ci-a-tion.
One reason for the run on proposed timber sales can be traced to a rider attached to the federal Recision Act. Since last summer, Congress has allowed the Forest Service to put trees up for harvest in emergency situations without having to comply with established environmental laws.
The rationale was that speedy logging of dead and dying timber would reduce the danger of forest fires as well as insect infestation of healthy trees. The temporary rule expires at the end of the year.
Carter calls it "logging without law." Environmentalists believe forest managers are rushing to squeeze in as many sale proposals as possible before the deadline. They also complain the compacted program prevents public scrutiny and stops court appeals.
"The whole salvage sale system has undone 30 years of environmental protection," he said. "The public has been shut out, and environmental laws that ensure tree sales are legitimate have been turned off."
Environmentalists say dead trees are almost as useful as live ones. They provide habitats for a variety of wildlife. And when trees naturally topple, they protect and enrich the soil and prevent ero-sion.
Adus Dorsey, who runs a small logging operation in central Utah, grumbles that environmentalists fight everything. Their protests, he said, make cutting timber unaf-ford-able, leaving trees to sit and rot.
"You say the E-word down here and people get a little nervous. Wehave trees up there that need to be harvested," he said of the forests near his home in Torrey. "It's not like they're going to go up there and deplete the whole resource. We kind of feel like the guardians up there."
Environmentalists believe that's their role, especially when it comes to salvage sales they find questionable. Their cries apparently were heard in Washington, D.C. The Forest Service last week tightened restriction allowing salvage logging on federal land across the West.
Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman wants to ensure salvage timber sales are true emergencies and not simply an excuse for loggers to cut more trees. His directive increases public disclosure about sales, bans salvage logging in pristine areas, minimizes construction of new roads and reduces the number of healthy green trees that can be cut along with dead and dying ones.
Western loggers are outraged and environmentalists are skeptical. The Forest Service takes changes in stride.
"We just follow the law," said Don Fullmer, ecosystems branch chief for the Manti-LaSal National Forest.
The South Manti sale on the Manti-LaSal is by the far the largest ever offered in Utah. Loggers would be allowed to cut 71 million board feet of dead and live Englemann spruce from 10,000 acres on the Wasatch Plateau southeast of Manti. The Forest Service plans a series of sales over five to eight years.
"It really is in accordance with our mission," he said.
Spruce beetles invaded the Manti-LaSal about six years ago, virtually wiping out all trees eight inches in diameter and greater. "It almost became like a wildfire in slow motion," Fullmer said.
Harvesting the dead trees would not only head off the rampaging beetles, he said, but cut down on the chance for a real wildfire, thus protecting recreationists and wildlife. The sight of brown trees also isn't socially acceptable.
"We want to speed up the reforestation process," he said.
Environmentalists don't buy it.
"How can this not be the poster child of salvage sales in Utah and the Intermountain Region?" asked Nina Dougherty, conservation chairwoman for the Utah Valley Group of the Sierra Club. The sale is exempt from appeal and will rob Utah families of their natural heritage, she said. The Utah chapter of the Sierra Club nominated it as one of the 20 worst sales nationwide.
Hearing environmentalists gripe about the law basically comes with working for the Forest Service. "I think we are certainly the recipients of some rhetoric about how people feel about the Recision Act in general," Fullmer said.
Although not nearly on the scale of the South Manti sale, the proposed harvest in the Timber Mountain/Pole Heaven area of Hobble Creek Canyon above Springville has drawn criticism, too.
Fir engraver beetles destroyed thousands of white fire and Douglas fir trees. The Uinta National Forest intends to permit loggers to cut 2 million board feet on 500 acres. The area is a black bear breeding ground in June and July.
"We can be proactive and do something there that maintains the long-term viability of the stand," said Doug Page, a Uinta National Forest silviculturist.
Mark Clemens, chairman of the Sierra Club's Utah Valley chapter, hopes that proactivity doesn't force the bears out. "This area is of critical importance to black bears," he said.
Tom Tidwell, Spanish Fork District ranger, said logging schedules would be planned around the bears' breeding season. He also said it is difficult to please everyone. The forest must be managed to meet overall needs, he said.
And while environmentalists, loggers and forest managers continuously question each other, there's an organization in central Utah trying to pull the three disparate groups together.
Mark Austin, owner/operator of the Boulder Mountain Lodge, founded the Southern Utah Independent Forest Products Association for Rural Development. It has pulled environmentalists, Forest Service officials and loggers, like mill owner Dorsey, under one canopy.
The idea is to find solutions all three can live with. "I use a lot of wood," said Austin, who also is a contractor. "That's a reality. But I'm a conservationist, an environmentalist or whatever you want to call me."
Austin and Dorsey, both of whom are officers in the association, want to convince the Forest Service to keep salvage sales small enough for local loggers to bid on them. They don't want corporate America invading Utah for its timber. The sales would have to be 500,000 board feet or less for small companies like Dorsey's to have a chance at them.
The group's message of cooperation is slowly catching on. Dorsey recently spent time in Washington, D.C., explaining the concept to members of Utah's congressional delegation. He and Austin are optimistic that a common-sense approach to forest management will put everyone on common ground.
"We have the opportunity to have our cake and eat it and smother it in ice cream," he said.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Proposed timber sales: IN UTAH
Ashley National Forest
Roadshed 1,285 acres; 9 million board feet
Dixie National Forest
South Creek/Under Barney 2,530 acres; 4.4 million board feet
Mammoth/Duck Creek 5,000 to 6,000 acres; 10 million board feet
Blue Springs/Reeds Valley 3,350 acres; board feet not determined
Manti-LaSal National Forest
Soutn Manti 10,000 acres; 71 million board feet
Uinta National Forest
Timber Mountain/Pole Heaven 500 acres; 2 million board feet
Wasatch Cache National Forest
Round Park/Lost Creek 6,600 acres; 25.8 million board feet