Mikes Gulch and Blackberry roadless logging sales exempted under the roadless victory ruling:
The photos below show some of the last remaining green forest in the North Fork Indigo watershed being hacked apart by loggers who are outside of actual logging units. This afront on our forests is being done under the Biscuit FEIS, the Forest Service maintains that no green trees will be cut but stumps don't lie and the green trees we photographed were still on the ground.
According to the FS, they now must log giant green trees along roads leading to timber sales, under so-called OSHA safety requirements. New training of the FS by OSHA officials apperently caused the shift from logging dead hazard trees along roadways to taking out the most valuable merchanable green trees. No one will ever know how much they logged up there exactly, as it is being covered up as to how much volume John West was rewarded, after he complained of not getting the volume out of the Mikes Gulch roadless sale, it is unknown how much of a profit he has made from the sale of green old-growth tree or how much volume was sent overseas. The FS has reportedly continued the processs of logging over the green forest which forms the only break between the massive clearcuts imposed on the small watershed. The cumalitive effects of hundreds of acres of clearcuts, numerous landslides, and hazard logging has greatly harmed the old-growth charachter of the area.
Old-growth logging in the Siskiyou National Forest can only occur during this time under excuses such as OSHA requirements and the so-called meadow restoration by clearcut.
The photos of logging trucks are coming from Mikes Gulch on the west side of Biscuit, and going to Oregon Overseas in Bandon, OR as shown below. Labels on the trucks leaving Oregon Overseas say smartwood FSC certified and there were no trucks seen entering the plant that were not old-growth giant trees. Over six log trucks were seen coming from Silver Creek's Mikes Gulch roadless sale that day alone. The FS has stated that logs coming from the Blackberry roadless logging sale are also going to Oregon Overseas and the Rough & Ready lumber Co.
Does anyone have any other information on Oregon Overseas? They are a booming company that is solely focused on old-growth milling, much like the Rough & Ready logging co. that just started buying BLM roadless sales. BLM does not recognize roadless areas and is planning to log them very soon.
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