Forest Service Vandalizing the Norbeck Preserve

[Brian Brademeyer]

Forest Service Vandalizes Norbeck Preserve

 

The Forest Service has begun destruction-by-bulldozer within the Norbeck Preserve in the Palmer Gulch Timber Sale, beginning in the area proposed for Wilderness designation by environmental groups in 1991.  The first of 39 miles of unnecessary and destructive “temporary” haul roads are being created by driving bulldozers over the area east of Willow Creek Horse Camp in Palmer Gulch.

 

Road work and logging operations in the Palmer Gulch Timber Sale are causing excessive damage to soils, and have obliterated the Willow Creek Trail #8 east of Willow Creek Trailhead for over 1/2 mile, and by feller-bunchers for another 3/4 mile.  The bulldozing has completely destroyed Trail #8, as can be seen in the photo below.  Five miles of trails are scheduled for such “treatment.”

 

This destruction is being inflicted purposefully, and we believe the intention is to damage the area sufficiently to disqualify it for future Wilderness consideration. We note that such bulldozed “temporary” haul routes are not necessary if the logging is done in winter when the ground is frozen solid, as occurred last December and January in the Sunday Gulch Timber Sale in the Norbeck Preserve.  Bulldozers are absolutely unnecessary for execution of the Palmer Gulch Timber Sale, and their use anywhere in the Norbeck Preserve should be ended immediately.

 

The public was provided no information about the location of, or need for, these “temporary haul roads” in the Norbeck Wildlife Project Final Environmental Impact Statement, even though many people requested maps of the intended road works.  In addition, no roadwork for these haul roads was indicated in the Palmer Gulch Sale Prospectus maps.  

 

The soils in virtually the entire Palmer Gulch Sale Area are still too wet to be operated on with logging equipment, let alone bulldozers.  Given the excessive rainfall we have had this summer, all intermittent streams throughout the Sale Area are still running strong.  It is doubtful that the ground will dry to typical conditions anytime this fall.

 

The above photo of this trail destruction clearly shows that the FEIS promise to the public that use of system trails "would need to be converted back to its original (trail) condition post-use" [FEIS at p. 258] was empty rhetoric. Trails bulldozed into muddy messes cannot be restored to "original (trail) condition".

 

The logging is equally destructive, as can be seen in the photo below, where logs cut in Unit 7 were dragged one-half mile or more down the draw shown, and up the next draw to the landing for loading onto logging trucks (second photo below).

 

 

 

Send comments to the Lynn Kolund, District Ranger of the Forest Service:

 

[e-mail]

 

Demand of the District Ranger that:  To avoid irreversible damage to soil and water resources, the Forest Service must shut down the entire Palmer Gulch Timber Sale operation until the ground is completely frozen.

 

Additional photos can be found here; click View Slideshow for easy viewing.