Elk Thin Timber Sale: Comments Needed

The Happy Camp Ranger District of the Klamath National Forest is proposing the 358-acre Elk Thin timber sale. The Elk Creek watershed is already fragmented from past logging and roadbuilding activities, and it is designated a "key watershed" for salmon recovery.

While we support one of the alternatives for the project, unfortunately, it is not the preferred alternative of the Forest
Service. Please write the Forest Service and ask that they choose
Alternative C, which protects forest canopy and avoids ground based yarding systems in this sensitive watershed.

Please write Klamath Forest Supervisor Peg Boland regarding the Elk Thin Project. A sample letter is below and comments are due February 23.

Margaret Boland, Forest Supervisor
Klamath National Forest
1312 Fairlane Road
Yreka, CA 96097
comments-pacificsouthwest-klamath [at] fs.fed.us

Sample Letter

Dear Ms. Boland,

I am writing you concerning the Elk Thin timber sale. As you know, Elk Creek has suffered greatly from rampant logging and road building in the 1970s and 1980s. I strongly value Elk Creek for its remaining old-growth forests and for the habitat it provides for at-risk salmon and steelhead.

I urge you to do what is best for the forest, and the human users of
Elk Creek, by implementing "Alternative C" which protects forest
canopy and avoids ground based-yarding systems in this sensitive
watershed.

I have the following specific requests:

- Retain 60% canopy closure in thinned stands; (2) Retain all
old-growth trees and forest stands; and (3) Avoid ground-based tractor yarding.

- All so-called "Hazard Trees" to be felled along roads in the Late
Successional Reserve should be felled and LEFT ON SITE so as to provide for down woody debris and nutrient cycling.

- This is a Key Watershed for Salmon recovery and serves as a municipal water source, so the Forest Service should use this opportunity to decommission some of the vast network of logging roads in the watershed.

Thank you for considering these comments,

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For more information and photos, visit:
http://www.kswild.org/TimberSales/elkthin/
<http://www.kswild.org/TimberSales/elkthin/*>