They're Logging the Biscuit http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2004/08/06/news/news01.txt August 6, 2004 Carving a niche photo: Sawmill workers at East Fork Lumber, Inc. on Wednesday afternoon in Norway saw charred timber into lumber that was salvage from the Biscuit Fire. World Photo by Madeline Steege By Dan Schreiber, Staff Writer NORWAY - Despite a decades-long downturn in the timber industry in Southern Oregon, one Coos County company has thrived, making specialty products for a diverse customer base spanning the nation. But its success has not been without turmoil. East Fork Lumber Company, Inc. in Norway obtained rights to harvest the 125-acre Indi timber sale at a U.S. Forest Service auction last month in Medford. Robert Sproul, owner of the mill nestled in the Coquille Valley, said the sale will cost more than $1.9 million for about 6.5 million board feet of lumber. The company pushed bidding to $304 per 1,000 board feet, three times the minimum amount set by the Forest Service. The sale, 12 miles east of Agness, falls under the designation of matrix lands, set aside for logging by the Northwest Forest Plan enacted by the Clinton administration. The sale is the only active Biscuit Fire salvage logging timber proposition not to receive an injunction Tuesday from a federal judge. The timber should be harvested, Sproul believes. "As a society, it would be a failure on our part not to use it," he said. Sawdust blew in calm breezes Wednesday at the East Fork mill in the overcast valley, where masked workers were running a steady stream of customer orders through machinery. Sproul said about a year has passed since his company began logging on borders of the Indi units, as part of the Indigo hazard sale. Those burnt stands were determined hazardous by the Forest Service. The majority of timber at his mill Wednesday was visibly charred old-growth Douglas fir logs. Sproul said the 20-year-old company has been boosted by the high quality old growth timber, something that has also pleased his customers. "People like the wood that's coming out of it," Sproul said, "and it's all for the domestic market." Sproul has watched mill after mill end operations in Southern Oregon and he attributes the survival of his 14-employee company to specialized products, most of which are in raw form and of odd sizes, lengths, grades and species of timber. "We'd do anything," Sproul said. "We do what the larger mechanized mills cannot do." Small companies, he said, should be allowed better access to the Biscuit Fire lands and all government lands, even though larger corporations may lower Forest Service administrative costs by purchasing rights for more land at one time. "One of the biggest problems is the Forest Service and the BLM selling small Biscuit Fire tracts to large companies," Sproul said. "We don't need a lot of wood like they do. We can operate with a small amount." The timber industry has filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service in court stating the agency is preventing enough of the Biscuit Fire lands from being harvested. A bitter political and ecological debate arose from the ashes of the 2002 lightning-caused, 500,000-acre fire over what should be done with the remaining wood. Many in the timber industry, the government and environmental groups see the case as a prototype for future policy on the millions of acres of public land ravaged by wildfires every summer. Even though environmentalists have focused primarily on halting logging in late successional and old-growth reserve lands and put matrix lands low on their list of priorities in lawsuits against the Forest Service, groups have targeted Sproul's activity in the Indi sale. Cascadia Rising, a Portland-based environmental group, will stage protests when East Fork begins logging, according to Tim Reams, a member of the group. The Indi sale was the site of protest last week. Four members of the Wild Siskiyou Action Team were arrested by Curry County Sheriff's deputies after they suspended themselves 75 feet in the air with an intricate system of ropes and platforms in an attempt to block logging trucks. "What we want to do is let Bob Sproul's customers understand the shaky business decision that he's making right now. His employees, his customers, they need to understand," Ream said. "This is the most controversial timber sale in southern Oregon, if not in the whole state in the next couple of weeks." Environmentalists want the burned forest to regenerate naturally. Reams contends effects of East Fork's logging will carry over into protected land and threaten endangered species, while also causing erosion into streams and threatening the fish population. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan said he would not grant environmentalists' request to buffer creek zones in the forest, though he issued a temporary restraining order until the office of the Secretary of Agriculture properly marks trees to be left standing in Biscuit sales in accordance with the National Forest Management Plan. Sproul said his company is not violating the integrity of the natural environment and some trees will be left standing on the Indi sale. "It is marked out what you take and what you don't take," Sproul said, adding he plans to clear cut some of the land. "This certain (sale) area is burned pretty thoroughly." That's not the way environmentalists see the Indi situation. Reams said much of the surrounding forest contains live trees. "There's no way that the Forest Service could have laid out this sale to only have black trees cut," Ream said. "I don't think there's any way East Fork could have bought this without the thought of taking out green trees." Sproul maintains his intention is to boost employment rates in southern Oregon and he said he plans to hire up to four new employees to take on the large Biscuit harvest, the product of which he said could last up to five years. "Most of my customers are eco-sensitive. They support what I do. They support the harvesting of dead trees," Sproul said. "I think we're going to see this timber harvested. It's going to be good for the local economy." - END -