CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
May 19, 2005
Contacts: Noah Greenwald, Ctr. for Biological Diversity, 503-484-7495
BISCUIT FIRE “RECOVERY PROJECT” TO HARM AS MANY AS 100 RARE AND IMPERILED WILDLIFE SPECIES
NEW REPORT DOCUMENTS SERIOUS IMPACTS TO WILDLIFE FROM BISCUIT LOGGING
The Center for Biological Diversity, Cascadia Wildlands Project, Siskiyou Project and five other groups issued a report today documenting that the Biscuit Fire “Recovery Project” could harm as many as 100 rare and imperiled wildlife species. Billed as forest restoration, the “Recovery Project” is actually one of the largest timber sales in national forest history, calling for logging of 370 million board feet or enough to fill a continuous chain of logging trucks from Seattle to Los Angeles. Most of this logging will occur in Old-Growth Reserves and roadless areas.
“Logging thousands of ancient trees in the Siskiyous will have immense impacts on rare and imperiled wildlife,” states Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity and primary author of the report. “Many of the species potentially impacted by the logging are found nowhere else on earth.”
The report identified at-risk species using data from the Oregon Natural Heritage Program on the distribution of Oregon’s imperiled species and on the Forest Service’s own Environmental Impact Statement, in which the agency concluded individuals or the habitat of many species would be negatively impacted.
“We’ve said all along that logging the Biscuit Fire will have serious negative impacts on the environment,” states Jasmine Minbashian, acting director of Cascadia Wildlands Project. “Our report provides further evidence that the costs of logging ancient trees in Old-Growth Reserves and roadless areas are too high to justify allowing a few logging companies to line their pockets.”
Many of the species that are likely to be impacted by logging are dependent on the large trees, both dead and alive, that are found only in old-growth forests, including at least forty different animals that the Forest Service acknowledges occur in the project area. Animals such as the Pacific Fisher, Northern Spotted Owl and White-headed Woodpecker simply cannot survive if too many ancient trees are removed.
“The Siskiyou Wild Rivers area is a sanctuary for salmon, sensitive wildlife and rare wildflowers that need pristine forests to survive,” states Rolf Skar, outreach coordinator for the Siskiyou Project. “The Siskiyous should be protected as a National Conservation Area to prevent reckless logging from robbing future generations of their rich natural heritage.”
View the report at www.biologicaldiversity.org