Ochoco National Forest
The Ochoco Natioal Forest and Bandit Springs Recreation Area
Background
The Ochoco National Forest is considered a secret scenic retreat by some and a long-time source of logs by others. Both are accurate but to most people it is an unknown Forest encircling Highway 26 between Prineville and Mitchell and is on the way to almost nowhere. The Forest itself is largely responsible for the continued existence of Prineville, once the largest city in Central Oregon and the only incorporated city in Crook County. Only in 1911, when the railroads chose to route their tracks through the little burg of Bend did the city fade from prominence. Rather than become another of Oregon's ghost towns, the forward-looking citizens of the town voted to finance and build their own railroad in 1916. The major exports intended for the new railway were agricultural products, logs and wood products from the Ochocos. Like most logging towns, Prineville has found it difficult to make the transition from a logging based economy. Thanks to Les Schwab and the Forest Service the city has continued to survive and even grow modestly over the past few decades. The timber industry is another matter. Home to four thriving mills in the 1980s, Prineville lost two of the mills in 1992 and 1993. The largest mill, Ochoco Lumber announced its closure plans in 2001. Employment in the Ochoco Forest Service has slowly been diminishing in size since the boom in the 1980s.
The Ochoco National Forest
The Ochoco National Forest remains the crown jewel for local recreation and should be managed as such. In an unusual demonstration of foresight, the Forest Service has saved many of the large old trees, mainly Ponderosa Pine, and are no longer cutting trees over 21 inches in diameter. In spite of the best efforts of the cattle industry, the multitude of meadows in the Forest have proven resilient to the long history of grazing, although many of the mountain sides, springs and riparian vegetation have not. The entire Forest is divided into grazing allotments as part of our National public assistance program. Its beauty is still being marred by legal off-road vehicles and a total disregard by the Forest Service to vehicle access. You can drive your pickup nearly anywhere in the Forest, including the wide-open meadows and if you are a really adventurous four wheeler, you can plow right through the fragile springs without complaint. The Forest has been badly marred in some locations by past logging. A prime example of this abuse exists in the Bear Creek Drainage. However, much of the Forest remains attractive and has suffered minimal abuse. Were it managed as a scenic\recreational resource, the local economy would reap the benefits in the long run.
Marks Creek and the Bandit Springs Recreation Area
On March 7,2003, the Forest Service issued a decision notice on the long-pending Bandit Timber Project. After much public input, Alternative 4 of the Bandit II Environmental Assessment was selected as the plan of action, although it was not the Alternative of choice for either the environmental community or the timber interests.
The project includes:
- 3.8 MMBF of harvested timber
- 412 acres of precommercial thinning
- 10,785 acres of controlled burns
- 2.2 miles of new road construction
- 9.3 miles of road reconstruction
- 17.3 miles of road inactivation
- 8.8 miles of road decommissioning
- 149 acres of Hardwood Enhancement and Riparian Planting
Juniper Group Comments TO Bandit II Proposal
January 17, 2003
Dear Mr. Rawlings,
The Juniper Group of the Sierra Club respectfully submits these comments to the Bandit EA dated December, 2002. Please accept this document for public comment.
We have the following concerns and disagreements with the document. Most of these concerns have to do with treating this action as being independent of other
Forest Service responsibilities in the Bandit area:
Socio-Economic Impact (pages 16 & 118)
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (1999), The National Forests provide 3.3 million jobs. 2.3% of those are due to timber while 77.7% are due to
recreation. These percentages are nearly the same when expressed in dollars. The figures show that recreation in our National Forests provides more than 30 times
as many jobs than timber in the same forests. From these facts we would conclude that to protect local economies in the long-term, we must first protect the
recreational values of our National Forests. It is difficult to imagine a scenario where extraction of commercial timber would do other than harm to the recreational
values. Admittedly, these statistics have been compiled on a national scale but a look at Crook County, the home of the Bandit Action, also shows that the county is
not suffering undue harm by the loss of timber jobs: According to the Bend Bulletin, in the period from 1990 to 1998, Crook County lost 28% of its timber and wood
products jobs. During the same period (actually 1990 to 2000) the population of the county increased by 35.9%. (fed.stats.gov). Nor has the trend reversed since
the 2001 closing of Prineville's last two lumber mills: The population of Prineville, by far the largest city in Crook County, has increased from 7356 at the end
of 2000 (Oregon Blue Book) to about 8150 today (Prineville City Limits sign December, 2002). Crook County is not an economically distressed area. You are correct
in pointing out that the economy of Crook County has "lagged behind the State of Oregon as a whole" but this has been true for 4 decades and the remaining timber
resources cannot reverse this trend - but recreation may. Managing for recreational values will have a far greater impact on the local economy than recreation
damaging timber sales. A specific example of recreation mismanagement occurs in the dispersed recreation sites (Map M1). All of these are shared with cows. In the
summer when these sites are most popular, they are heavily grazed and covered with fresh cowpies. A typical example of this is Grant Meadows. In the spring before
the cows arrive, it is a beautiful lush meadow. By late summer, the place resembles a feedlot and the dispersed recreation site is the prefered bovine habitat. If
the Ochoco Forest Service were truly interested in aiding the local economy, cows would be excluded from dispersed recreation sites.
Roads (pgs. 22 & 114)
Road density calculations assume "closed" roads are not used with the exception of 12% ineffective closures. The open road density numbers are meaningless due to
the rampant 4WD and ATV use. Our independent observations would place the ineffective closures at around 50%. In addition, "bootleg" roads and firewood cutting
roads would add another 30% to this number. We feel that the unclassified road mileage given is low by perhaps a factor of ten.
Snags (pgs. 13 & 88 to 90)
Although snag density is mentioned as a concern and the conclusion is drawn that the Bandit area has adequate snag population for cavity nesters, we must take
exception to this conclusion. Due to a firewood cutting program that is not adequately enforced, hundreds of snags are lost each year in the Bandit area to illegal
wood cutters. In our own survey of an area of ten square miles within the Bandit area, we found and documented 125 larch, Douglas fir and Ponderosa pine snags that
had been cut in a two year period encompassing 2000 and 2001 and it is certain that we did not find all of the poached snags. We do not know if these numbers are
typical for the entire Bandit area but if they are, the total snag population in the Bandit area is decreasing by about 500 snags per year. We feel that this is a
serious problem that must be addressed. Another related problem deals with the claim that "to maintain habitat for the common flicker, no live junipers over 12
inches dbh will be cut in harvest or precommercial thinning activities." (p47 & 91) This seems meaningless when the wood cutting regulations for the area permit
cutting "any juniper tree live or dead".
Riparian Areas and Stream Banks (pgs. 10, 27, 46, 68 - 74 and 124)
We find a startling contrast in the emphasis given to the care of riparian areas and stream banks in the EA and the total disregard for the excessive damage being
caused to those areas by livestock grazing. The document states that RHCAs "will be managed to maintain or restore water quality, stream channel integrity, channel
processes, sediment regimes, instream flows, diversity and productivity of plant communities in riparian zones and riparian and aquatic habitats to foster unique
genetic fish stocks that evolved within the specific region." (p 10) We feel that this is a futile and wasteful effort without eliminating livestock grazing in those
areas.
Alternative 2
Alternative 2 includes several units of salvage logging from the Hash Rock fire. We oppose salvage logging due to its destruction of the soils. It also calls for
excessive commercial logging in the Bandit Springs Recreation area, which we feel will cause undue damage to the recreational values of the area.
Unit 705.1
Unit 705.1 which is included in both Alternative 2 and 4, should not be commercially harvested. It is located adjacent to the Mill Creek Wilderness Area in a potential
roadless area surveyed by the Oregon Natural Resources Council. It requires the construction of a new system road. The Hash Rock Fire has done enough damage to
recreational values of the area, this will only further damage the wilderness quality.
Sincerely,
George Wilson, Chair, Juniper Group
34777 NE Ochoco Hwy.
Prineville, Oregon 97754
