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The Ark Animal Sanctuary in Tillamook has finally been closed down due to chronic, extreme neglect of its animals. Assistance desperately needed to treat sick animals and find them homes!

"Quoted from the newswire: I was at Ark Animal Sanctuary yesterday and was both shocked and horrified at what I saw. I had heard from all of the reports that the facility was bad, but it was beyond my imagination. Starving animals, sick animals and animals in pain encompassed me. Filth and the accompanying stench was everywhere. There were trashed vehicles all over the place filled with debris...rotting buses, trailers and cars that animals hid in and lived in. Pigs whose home was a camper shell in the ground buried in the mud. The horse barn was the most disgusting place I had ever been in...animal waste and water were at times halfway up my calves. Burros whose hoofs were so bad that they could barely walk. Pregnant cats and cats with litters were at my feet.

"I tell you all of this not to upset anyone, but to let you know that the pain and suffering for these animals is almost over. But we need your help to end their suffering!"

[ June 6th: HELP!!! Ark Animal Emergency Evacuation Continues | June 4th: Animals in dire need of help! "Sanctuary" shut down for neglect. | Ark Animal Sanctuary Website ]

Quartz Timber Sale on the Auction Block

The Quartz Creek Timber Sale lies in the Astoria District of the Tillamook State Forest. This sale was sold on Tuesday, Aug 21 for $5,034,043.84.

Species known or suspected to be present, and that may be irreversibly impacted by this sale, intended to clearcut 130 acres and remove 17 million board feet, include populations of coho salmon, steelhead, cutthroat trout, and Northern Spotted Owl. The Astoria District has 520 miles of silt-depositing roads presently degrading salmon habitat and fragmenting wildlife corridors. The sale area is on 947 acres.

The clearcut logging of 52 acres for the 9 miles of road will begin before the Northern Spotted Owl Surveys are complete. ODF's own studies admit that the number of owl pairs in the north Coast Range west of Portland fell by 60 percent from 1994 to 1999, possibly the sharpest decline documented in a single population.

UPDATE:
There was a rally held at the auction to call attention to the Oregon Department of Forestry's (ODF) inconsistencies in their Auction information and in their failure to protect the endangered species in this area. Concerned citizens voiced their concerns with this sale, including residents who have been and will be directly impacted by ODF logging activities affecting their land.

Read the update on the ODF auction of this sale involving over 1000 acres of public land in the Tillamook State Forest, and how the public can still comment on the 10-year forest plan that would allow more of the same by clicking on the "Quartz Auction Update" below.

TRAMPLING ON CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT
Earlier this year, in response to citizen outrage over logging in Acey Line Timber Sale in the God's Valley area of the Tillamook National Forest, the ODF created a citizen group to review timber sales involving older stands of trees. The last meeting was July 26 and no one was told that logging would begin in Acey before the final review of the citizen group discussions. On August 1st, the road to Area 3 was blocked by several county sheriffs and state police. Armed law enforcement officers were seen patrolling Area 3. Citizens who attempted to go in to see what was happening were threatened with arrest. The logging was finished a few days later and on August 7, the ODF brought a carefully-selected group of media to visit the site. Greeting the media was a local woman locked to a cable across God's Valley Road holding a sign stating "God is Dead!" The media entourage had to use another road. While the ODF was showing the media the logging, a banner saying "Save God's Valley" popped up in the woods.

CITIZEN RESISTANCE
Citizens have snuck in to document the logging, risking arrest. They found 40 inch diameter trees cut; the contract specifies no trees greater than 32 inches diameter were to be cut. Trees with branches greater than 5 inches diameter were to be left for marbled murrelet nesting trees, but citizens found some of these cut too. These concerns were ignored by the ODF. Yarding of the trees should begin in about a week. This will cause damage to leave trees, the understory and the soil.
For more information, and how you can help with this and other timber sales that need citizen oversight, visit the BARK website, or call (503) 331-0374; email: Bark@Spiritone.com