BLM Timber Plan Is Madness

Regarding “The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Trees — For Now” (EW, 5/28) and “Timber Sale Protest” (5/28), I’ve got to hand it to our tireless forest defenders. Why, when our nation and the world are holding their collective breath, is the local BLM office pushing forward with its Thurston Hills clearcut sale yet again?

Dealing with bad timber sale proposals in Oregon sometimes feels like a game of “whack-a-mole”: Even with constant vigilance, one after another ill-conceived plan pops up. It’s a shame, during our current national crises, to see some of our land managers are behaving more like corporate raiders than as guardians of the public trust.

Beyond the brazen gall of it, if you heard a lot about this proposal last year and thought the public outcry and the courts had finally struck it down, well, welcome to the whack-a-mole. The BLM is back with almost exactly the same proposal — with all its fire-inducing management practices and destruction of recreational values — and is hoping to implement it while everyone is justifiably looking the other way. The management plan admits that demolishing healthy forest and replacing it with young plantations increases the fire risk to Springfield residents — what madness would lead a public land manager to even consider an action like this? We can contact Rep. Peter DeFazio and the Lane County Board of County Commissioners with our concerns and also submit written protests directly to the Springfield BLM office.

Rebecca White

Eugene