In September 2024, the Medford District BLM approved the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale by claiming that the project would sustain no significant environmental impacts and by approving the project with no scientific analysis and absolutely no public involvement, utilizing a Categorical Exclusion (CX).
Unit 27-4 was heavily logged in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale leaving only 3.7 trees per acre.
What using a Categorical Exclusion means is that the BLM excluded you from the process. More specifically, they excluded the public “scoping” process and a public comment period, where the public can raise questions, state concerns, identify applicable scientific information, and identify “Action Alternatives” relevant to the initial project proposal.
A view across unit 35-3 in the foreground with unit 34-2 on the more distant north slope of Boaz Mountain
The BLM then excluded the release of a detailed Environmental Assessment (EA) which would have analyzed these action alternatives and their impacts, while offering yet another public comment period, and additional opportunities for public involvement, all before making a final decision.
Yet, in the case of the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale, the BLM simply skipped these steps and approved the project claiming it would have such minimal environmental impact that no comment periods or detailed analysis was required.
According to the Categorical Exclusion used to approved the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale,
“These categorical exclusions are appropriate in this situation because there are no extraordinary circumstances potentially having effects that may significantly affect the environment.”
Yet, ASA has been monitoring the project’s implementation for many months and our work demonstrates that this project has been one of the most damaging timber sales on BLM lands in the Applegate Valley in recent memory. During the coarse of the last six months, the BLM and Mineral Creek Logging have been devastating the forests of Cinnabar Ridge clearcutting whole stands of live, green forests and leaving on average only 3.4 trees per acre across the entire timber sale. In the process, once forested slopes have been laid bare, landslides have been triggered, streams have been bulldozed and filled with sediment, and wildlife habitats have been irreparably damaged.
A major landslide triggered by BLM logging in unit 27-5 of the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale.
Additionally, when compared to the conditions before the logging occurred fire risks will be dramatically increased on the clearcut slopes of the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale. This is because clearcut logging replaces fire resistant mature forest with dense even-aged growth. Although still raw and covered in logging slash, within the next 3-5 years young trees, shrubs and fine fuels will proliferate in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale elevating fire risks across Cinnabar Ridge.
ASA recently took a drive up Boaz Gulch Road to document the now fully logged and thoroughly devastated Boaz Salvage Timber Sale. What we found was is heartbreaking, but informative. It is also a cautionary tale of what could be ahead for the Applegate Valley if the BLM moves forward with the Ashland 2025 SOS Project.
Although only 250 acres in size, the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale had significant environmental impacts, and will leave a lasting scar in the lower portions of both the Upper Applegate and Little Applegate Valley’s. The Ashland 2025 SOS Project would log over 5,000 acres using similar prescriptions, similar unit criteria, and similarly misleading definitions of “dead and dying” trees, only this logging would be widespread across large portions of the Applegate Valley.
Below is a photo essay taken in late June in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale along with infrared satellite imagery showing the stands before and after treatment.
Unit 26-1
Large portions of unit 26-1 above Grouse Creek in the Little Applegate River watershed were clearcut, and on average only 4.5 trees per acre were retained. Before logging occurred this stand contained a mature forest canopy and sustained very little mortality during recent flatheaded fir borer beetle mortality events.
Unit 26-2
Unit 26-2 is located at the top of Cinnabar Ridge above the Little Applegate River and logging prescriptions left only 3.3 trees per acre. Before logging occurred this stand contained mature mixed conifer forest with patches of tree mortality, it is now a wasteland with a few scattered overstory trees.
Unit 27-3
Unit 27-3 includes large clearcut openings above Neds Gulch and was downhill yarded with tractors through a Riparian Reserve and seasonal stream. Over 160′ of a seasonal tributary of Neds Gulch was bulldozed and turned into a tractor yarding corridor and log decking area for unit 27-3. Although hard to tell now, the long tractor yarding corridor in this photo was built entirely within a Riparian Reserve that was previously shaded by mature conifers, large hardwoods, and riparian species like Oregon ash and big leaf maple. The actual stream bed of this seasonal stream was completely filled with soil and debris during the logging operations and all riparian vegetation was bulldozed into the stream to create an unanalyzed, unapproved tractor yarding corridor in what was approved as a skyline yarding unit.
Unit 27-4
Before logging occurred, unit 27-4 consisted of mature mixed conifer forest with a closed canopy forest and minimal recent tree mortality The same location after logging occurred in unit 27-4. Notice that nearly all large, living overstory trees were removed. Like other stands logged in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale the forest floor will now fill in with dense, highly flammable vegetation. Unit 27-4 was heavily logged and tractor yarded in the winter of 2025 during an atmospheric river. The resulting damage to soils included extensive soil erosion, heavy compaction, rutting over 3″ deep and sedimentation in Neds Gulch. The logging treatment retained only 3.7 trees per acre and the entire forest floor was heavily disturbed during logging operations.
Unit 27-5
Like many other units in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale, unit 27-5 supported mature mixed conifer forest with a closed canopy before the logging was implemented. Dominated by large overstory trees and located in a north facing draw the forest had natural drought and beetle resilience. Large portions of unit 27-5 were clearcut in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale logging off whole groves that had survived the recent beetle mortality outbreaks. In large portions of unit 27-5, no mature overstory trees were retained, while another small portion was very heavily “thinned.” Yet, characterize the majority of unit 27-5 as anything but a clearcut is misleading and inconsistent with the realities on the ground. This photograph shows the heart of unit 27-5. It is very evident that most of the unit was completely clearcut and in the winter of 2025 landslides blew out large potions of the slope filling the streams below with debris flows and thick mud. Logging debris was left multiple feet thick in portions of unit 27-5. The BLM tells us they need to log so-called “dead and dying” forests so large woody debris does not accumulate on the forest floor, yet their logging treatments cover the forest floor in slash that is highly available during a wildfire event and can significantly increase fire intensity, severity and rate of spread. .
Unit 27-6
Unit 27-6 of the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale overlooks the Upper Applegate Valley and prescriptions retained only 0.9 trees per acre. If this is not clearcut logging, we don’t know what is.
Unit 34-1
Unit 34-1 was a mixture of mature mixed conifer forest including both closed stands and more open stands merging into oak woodlands and chaparral, along with patches of recent conifer mortality. The BLM claims they did not implement clearcut logging in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale, while the conditions in large portions of unit 34-1 demonstrate otherwise. Unit 34-1 was clearcut and covered in logging slash.
Unit 34-2
Unit 34-2 of the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale is located on the northern slope of Boaz Mountain. Despite leaving an untreated island in the middle of the unit (including only non-commercial oak trees) the stand was clearcut by BLM and their contractor Mineral Creek Logging leaving only 1.4 trees per acre on very steep mountainous slopes.
Unit 35-3
Unit 35-3 is highlighted in red and shows the stand was not “dead and dying” before logging occurred. Instead it was very much living, resilient forest until logged to a few trees per acre in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale.Unit 35-3 was heavily logged in the spring of 2025 removing the forest canopy and nearly all overstory trees. Once a forest of mature mixed conifer forest, it now consists of a few scattered trees per acre and will soon fill in with brush and young trees dramatically increasing fire risks and degrading habitat values.
Unit 35-5
Stand conditions in unit 35-5 before logging occurred were mid to late successional with trees over 50″ diameter. The stand was almost entirely Douglas fir forest with closed canopy conditions, many relatively large diameter trees, minimal recent tree mortallity, and a few old pines. Before logging occurred in unit 35-5 of the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale the stand supported closed forests dominated by large, mature trees at the headwaters of Grouse Creek. The area sustained little tree mortality during recent beetle mortality outbreaks, but was logged heavily in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale.After logging unit 35-5 in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale the stand contained only 2.1 trees per acre, no closed canopy forest, virtually no stand complexity, no shade, higher air temperatures, and slopes more exposed to summer heat and wind. It will also soon fill in with a dense, highly flammable mixture of sun cured fine fuels including grasses and herbs, even aged shrubs, young conifers and hardwood regeneration. , Infrared Satellite imagery taken on 6/29/2024 shows minimal beetle related tree mortality in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale. Timber Sale units are shown in red polygons with the darker green areas contained existing forest canopy., while yellow and red shading depicts either cured grasses, thinner canopies, or concentrations of dead standing trees. Infrared Satellite imagery taken on 6/29/2025 following the implementation of clearcut logging in the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale. Timber Sale units are shown in the red polygons which are now bare. Clearly, the BLM logging operations created far more impact and tree loss in the forests surrounding Cinnabar Ridge than the 2022-2023 beetle mortality outbreaks.
