The letter was signed by 38 conservation groups including the Native Fish Society, Sierra Club and Oregon Wild.
Together they鈥檙e urging Oregon鈥檚 elected officials to halt proposed logging projects on about 10,000 acres of federal lands. The letter singles out areas that burned during the Holiday Farm Fire along the McKenzie River and Archie Creek Fire along the North Umpqua River.
鈥淭hese post-fire projects do remove most of the remaining standing trees, especially in severely burned areas,鈥� says Samantha Krop, who helped organize the coalition. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 where we see real clear-cut looking forests is in some of these stands that have burned more thoroughly.鈥�
The letter requests that federal land managers remove a designation known as 鈥渃ategorical exclusion鈥� on these sites that expedite post-fire logging operations and calls for them to undergo the usual scientific review process and include public input.
It asks federal agencies to avoid post-fire logging of old-growth forests, and implement a number of conservation measures included in the Northwest Forest Plan and Northern Spotted Owl recovery plan.
鈥淲ildfire boosts diversity in forests by helping to create biological legacies like standing dead snags, downed woody debris, and natural canopy gaps,鈥� the letter reads. 鈥淭his added complexity creates space for the introduction of complex habitat and rich diversity that is not present in forests that have been cut and replanted with commercial species.鈥�
