Save Applegate Forests for Everyone!

Tell BLM to Shut Down the Apple Saws and Holcomb Hollow Timber Sales for Non-Compliance!

Write a letter to Medford BLM District Manager Elizabeth Burghard, OR-WA BLM State Director Barry Bushue, BLM Ashland Resource Area Field Manager Lauren Brown, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, and U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley

Last year's Boaz Salvage Timber Sale in the Upper Applegate watershed resulted in devastating landslides, debris flows, clearcuts and permanent damage to the area's forests, streams, water quality, and wildlife habitats. On the heels of this disaster, the BLM has proposed more than 13,000 acres of additional logging in the Applegate River watershed, including the Ashland 2025 SOS Project, Cedar Flat Project and Douglas-fir Mortality Complex Project.

The BLM is currently implementing two Ashland 2025 SOS Project timber sales, known as the Apple Saws Timber Sale on Ben Johnson Mountain above Cantrall Buckley County Park, and the Holcomb Hollow Timber Sale on the western face of Woodrat Mountain. Applegate Siskiyou Alliance has been monitoring the implementation of these timber sales and we are finding both significant environmental impacts associated with these timber sales and ongoing issues with compliance.

Logging started on these timber sales around New Year's Day during a heavy rain event, and the results of these projects are starting to look very similar to the Boaz Salvage Timber Sale, with unauthorized ground-based yarding, road construction, tractor swing road construction, Riparian Reserve logging and Northern spotted owl habitat impacts occurring throughout the Holcomb Hollow and Apple Saws Timber Sales.

These timber sales are also facilitating the widespread removal of living hardwoods that were prohibited from felling and removal in the Special Provisions of the BLM's Timber Sale Prospectus, and identified for enhancement and promotion in the Ashland 2025 SOS Environmental Analysis. In the Apple Saws Timber Sale, we have documented that approximately 80% of the living hardwood population has been removed in affected units, dramatically exceeding the level of removal analyzed or authorized in BLM documents. Living madrone and black oaks are being felled, sorted, decked and sold by the logging contractors on both the Apple Saws and Holcomb Hollow Timber Sales, despite being reserved from logging.

Although the the BLM claims these timber sales are “salvage” logging projects, the Apple Saws Timber Sale is logging off predominantly living, green stands of mature mixed conifer forest, while the Holcomb Hollow Timber Sale is logging off healthy, living trees that survived the beetle outbreak in both stands with significant tree mortality and in living stands with healthy trees and minimal recent mortality.

This logging includes the removal of dominant conifers and hardwood species, as well as significant canopy cover reduction. By removing these large, living trees and large dead standing snags, the agency is encouraging the growth of dense, even-aged, highly flammable, young vegetation and logging slash that will dramatically increase fire risks in affected stands and in the forests surrounding our rural properties, homes and communities.

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Save Applegate Forests for Everyone!