Forest harvest discord

The Bureau of Land Management has plans to clear cut 400 acres of public forest near a popular recreation area southeast of Eugene, but the northern spotted owl may change the scope of that project and other proposed timber sales as well. The forest the BLM has its eyes on is off the beaten track, about a mile as the crow flies from popular camping spots and hiking trails located on the eastern edge of the Willamette National Forest. New rules put in place by the Bush administration last year allow expanded logging on BLM land while restricting habitat for the birds threatened with extinction. The timber industry and conservation activists have filed suits over both sets of rules and in March, the Obama administration said flatly that it wouldn’t defend the owl recovery plan in court. Since the BLM’s new timber harvest guidelines are based on the recovery plan, it puts a lot of guesswork into mapping timber sales. “We are definitely in a peculiar spot,” said BLM spokesman Michael Campbell...Register-Guard