The Medford District BLM has begun logging the so-called Boaz “Salvage” Timber Sale in the Applegate Valley by clearcutting living, green, viable stands of forest. Asking the public to suspend their disbelief, the BLM is simply declaring living stands “dead and dying,” yet in many of these stands the only signs of imminent mortality are the BLM’s timber sale boundary markers and the tree removal mark.
As we write this blog the BLM is clearcutting whole stands, retaining on average 3.3 trees per acre and making a mockery of truth, honesty, and accountability in the process. Applegate Siskiyou Alliance has opposed this timber sale since the BLM proposed to auction the sale to the timber industry without formal authorization. We have also ground-truthed all the units in the timber sale and found most of them to contain living, green, viable trees and stands. In fact, most have been only minimally impacted by the recent beetle mortality event. We also found a few stands that did contain significant tree mortality, where BLM will log nearly every tree that survived the beetle outbreak — logging the trees that have the genetics and are located in portions of the landscape that helped them survive the outbreak. These are the very trees we need to retain on the landscape for climate resiliency into the future.
Below we will expose the BLM lies one by one, showing how this dishonest and purposefully misleading narrative is affecting our environment and how the BLM is clearcutting our beloved forests.
Lie #1: The trees targeted for logging are dead and dying.
The BLM claims the trees in the Boaz “Salvage” Timber Sale are “dead and dying,” but the majority of the timber sale is located in living, green stands of trees and forests with little recent fir borer beetle mortality. According to the BLM’s authorization documents, a tree deemed “dead and dying” must be determined to be “likely to die within a few years.”
Yet, ASA hired professional certified forester, Kenneth Baldwin who issued a report that directly contradicts the BLM’s analysis, and found that the majority of the trees and stands proposed for logging are not dead and not dying, but are instead, living viable stands of trees.
“In summary my field survey of the thirteen units in the Boaz Mortality Salvage Sale, I conclude that most of the live Douglas-firs are not “severely damaged” nor “likely to die within a few years” and therefore do not meet the CX definition of dying trees. These trees are incorrectly designated for cutting in the units,” said Baldwin.
Additionally, satellite and infrared imagery shows that BLM is targeting living stands of trees with clearcut logging, which will only increase mortality and forest loss in our area.
We cannot allow the BLM to continue deceiving the public, implementing clearcut logging that degrades habitat, increases fire risks, impacts that area’s high scenic qualities, and logs living, green stands of trees under the guise of “salvage” logging. In the era of misinformation and “fake news,” we must hold the BLM accountable and demand that federal land management agencies provide honest, truthful analysis. We are also calling on our elected officials to confront the misinformation of the BLM, demand that the agency serve the public interest, protect our climate, and shut down this rogue agency that lies to promote its timber-first agenda, disregards all public concerns, and is actively working to take the public out of public land management.
The forests in the Boaz Timber Sale are not “dead and dying,” they are being killed by the BLM for the benefit of the industry and to the detriment of both the land and nearby communities.
BLM IS THE THREAT TO NATIVE FORESTS, NOT NATIVE BEETLES!
Lie #2: The BLM claims it is conducting “salvage” logging focused on the removal of dead and dying trees.
As identified above, very little of the Boaz Timber Sale contains “dead and dying” stands or trees, and the timber sale instead targets mostly living, green, viable stands of forest for clearcut logging. Additionally, even in stands that did support significant recent mortality, the BLM is proposing to log off many of the trees that survived the recent beetle mortality outbreaks. By logging living stands and living trees, BLM is undermining the resilience of our forests to future drought and beetle outbreaks and logging off trees that contain either genetic or situational resilience.
The Boaz Salvage Timber Sale is creating extensive forest loss that only compounds the mortality that did occur during the 2022-2023 mortality outbreak, releasing extensive carbon into the atmosphere fueling climate change, degrading habitat, and increasing fire risks. BLM is blatantly lying about the mortality in these stands, the impacts of the logging, and the health of the forests in question. The Boaz “Salvage” Timber Sale is not salvage logging and instead is clearcut logging and deforestation of green, living forests.
Lie #3: The flat headed fir borer outbreak is continuing unabated.
The BLM claims that flat headed fir borer mortality of 2022-2023 is ongoing and has continued unabated. Yet, all one needs to do is look around the watershed, go for a hike, or take a drive through the Applegate Valley. The tree mortality that occurred in response to droughts and heat domes in 2022 and 2023 has subsided and returned to background levels. Additionally, the abundant rain this fall and winter will most certainly reduce tree mortality even further. Flatheaded fir borer outbreaks are eruptive and responsive to climactic conditions, including prolonged drought, extreme heat, and a lack of winter cold. They are also naturally moderated by more favorable climactic conditions, as we are experiencing this year.
Once again, the BLM is lying to promote their timber-first agenda. They are refusing to publish information showing the level of mortality in 2024, and are operating off false assumptions, not based in fact. The flatheaded fir borer mortality outbreak has collapsed and BLM’s claims that trees are still dying en mass is inconsistent with the facts on the ground.
Lie #4: The recent beetle mortality will increase fire risks.
Past studies exploring the relationship of beetle mortality and fire behavior have also shown no direct correlation between increased fire severity and bark beetle mortality. This includes studies conducted in the Pacific Northwest (Meigs, 2016), the Rockies (DellaSala, 2016), in California (Bond, 2009), and in Oregon (Donato, 2006). Studies across the West have actually shown a decrease in fire severity associated with bark beetle mortality and an associated “dampening” of fire behavior (Meigs, 2016; Harvey et al. 2014; Donato, 2013). In fact, beetle mortality across a range of forest types has not been shown to influence the occurrence or increase the risk of fire, relative to unaffected stands (Bond, 2009; Kulakowski & Jarvis, 2011; Black et al. 2013; Harvey et al. 2013; Hart, 2015).
BLM is manipulating and cherry-picking their science, ignoring a massive body of science that contradicts their claims and once again lying to the public. The majority of scientific studies show that beetle mortality does not increase fire risks, yet BLM refuses to accept the best available science and instead promotes a false agenda meant to increase timber production on BLM lands and continue deforestation in southwest Oregon.
Lie #5: BLM logging will reduce fire risks
As identified above, the science demonstrates that beetle mortality events do not increase fire risks and may, in fact, reduce them; however, BLM refuses to objectively study the science and embrace these facts. Instead the agency is claiming that clearcut logging in the Boaz Timber Sale (to 3.3 trees per acre) will reduce fire risks. Ironically, this contradicts their own analysis in their Clean Slate and Griffin Halfmoon Timber Sales that admitted that extensive canopy reduction and large tree removal at this scale creates increased fire risks, increased fire severity, increased rates of spread, and generally more intense fires.
Additionally, the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale Prospectus, utilized by the BLM to outline timber sale activities for potential timber industry purchasers states that all units in the timber sale will be “treated” with lop and scatter slash abatement, which means all limbs, tops, logging slash and unmerchantable material will be left on the forest floor, dramatically increasing fire risks, understory fuel loading, and fire-available fuel in logged stands.
To claim to be reducing fire risks while implementing clearcut logging, artificially replanting conifers to create even-aged and highly flammable timber plantations, and leaving all logging slash on the forest floor is disingenuous, misleading, and untrue. Once again, the BLM lying about the effects of this project which will dramatically increase fire risks for the forests and surrounding rural communities in the Applegate Valley.
As Los Angeles recovers from devastating wildfires, the Medford District BLM is turning living, green forests into clearcuts that will turn into dense brush above the rural communities of the Applegate, creating highly flammable areas as residents work hard to make their own properties fire resilient.
Lie #6: The stands proposed for logging do not include Northern spotted owl and Siskiyou Mountains Salamander habitat.
The BLM claims that the stands proposed for logging are “dead and dying,” and therefore do not support northern spotted owl habitat; however, many of the stands proposed for logging include very little tree mortality and were identified in previous logging proposals as suitable habitat for the northern spotted owl (nesting roosting, foraging, and/or dispersal habitat). Given the lack of significant mortality in these stands, claiming that they no longer contain living forest canopy, large diameter trees, multi-aged stand structure and other constituent elements of northern spotted owl habitat is absolutely untrue.
Nothing has changed in these stands and they remain northern spotted owl habitats. Other locations in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale have been identified as Siskiyou Mountains salamander High Priority Habitats, where an existing 2007 Conservation Agreement precludes the BLM from removing too much canopy, operating heavy equipment, or significantly altering the habitat for this rare species; however, BLM’s Boaz Timber Sale will clearcut these habitats in violation of the Conservation Agreement damaging important Siskiyou Mountains salamander habitats.
Take Action!
Lies must be exposed with truth and the Medford District BLM’s dishonest salvage logging agenda must be stopped. They are currently logging the living, green forests of the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale and have proposed their massive SOS Project that will continue the public deception and log shows across up to 15,000 acres every five years. In the era of misinformation, we believe the public and our elected officials, must demand truth and honesty in government. The BLM has proven themselves to be dishonest and unworthy of managing our public lands. Lying to the public and undermining the public interest is unacceptable, but it is routine on the Medford District BLM, who has become a rogue agency, in need of significant reform.
Contact the following BLM and elected officials, and let them know you demand truthful analysis, honest projects that reduce, rather than increase fire risks, and the protection of our environment, our climate and the beautiful forests of southwestern Oregon. No more clearcut logging on BLM lands! Ask the BLM to withdraw the SOS Project and the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale and demand that elected officials take action now, before more living, carbon rich forests are clearcut under BLM’s misinformation campaign.
BLM District Manager Elizabeth Burghard: eburghar@blm.gov
Ashland Resource Area Manager, Lauren Brown: lpbrown@blm.gov
Senator Wyden: https://www.wyden.senate.gov/contact/email-ron
Senator Jeff Merkley: https://www.merkley.senate.gov/connect/contact/
Representative Pam Marsh: Rep.PamMarsh@oregonlegislature.gov
Representative Jeff Golden: Sen.JeffGolden@oregonlegislature.gov
