CANYON CITY – County of?cials are taking the offensive to support the proposed Thorn Fire Salvage Recovery Project on the Malheur National Forest.

Grant County Court of?cials traveled to Portland two weeks ago to meet with of?cials in the U.S. Forest Service’s regional of?ces and to discuss the salvage sale. The environmental impact statement (EIS) for the project hit a hitch last month because of concerns regarding roadless terrain and woodpecker habitat.

The project also was the topic of a meeting held last Friday, Aug. 10, at the Outpost restaurant in John Day. County Commissioners Boyd Britton and Scott Myers attended that session, which drew industry and agency representatives to discuss the Thorn sale. Britton, an organizer, said the meeting was originally intended to be a gathering of the collaborative forces interested in the proposal, but he was disappointed that one key critic didn’t show.

Britton said he had hoped the session would be an opportunity to address and resolve objections raised by the Sierra Club’s Eastern Oregon forest organizer, Asante Riverwind. Britton said he first scheduled the meeting for Aug. 7 but then rescheduled it to Aug. 10, specifically to accommodate Riverwind’s schedule. On Aug. 8, Britton got word that Riverwind wasn’t going to attend.

“He said it was a waste of time,” said Britton.

Riverwind, contacted this week, said he has been part of previous “round-table discussions that didn’t go anyplace,” and chose not to do so again. He said the Sierra Club and other groups still want to work directly with the Forest Service to resolve the main issues.

An alliance of such groups, led by the Sierra Club, has filed a 66-page response to the Thorn EIS, calling for restoration of the Widows Creek watershed and arguing against logging in the Aldrich uninventoried roadless area.

“A logging decision in the Aldrich area will of necessity bring a prompt judicial challenge in which we expect to prevail,” the response states.

The groups also charge that the plan for helicopter logging would remove too many old-growth trees in a roadless area.

The sale is proposed for a portion of the land burned in last summer’s Shake Table Fire, about 20 miles southwest of John Day.

The Forest Service proposes to salvage timber by helicopter on 3,411 acres and by ground-based yarding on another 496 acres.

In all, the fire burned some 14,000 acres.

Britton said county officials are steadfast in their support of the Forest Service sale option that would produce 40 million board feet of timber. He said they might accept a different alternative – one that would produce about 26 million board feet – but not happily.

Britton worried this week that “it’s going to get litigated, anyway.”

“We just left the Forest Service staff with out sense that they should go forward, we trust you as professionals to do what’s right,” Britton said.

Riverwind said he hoped the proposal wouldn’t end up in litigation. However, he said “there are so many illegalities” that he felt the Forest Service still needs to address.

“Litigation is a place of last resort,” he said. “And it’s only viable if federal laws are being broken.”

After the draft EIS sparked concerns last month, region Forest Service officials decided to review the scope of the project. Forest Supervisor Stan Benes, whose staff was working with the regional office on the project, said the sale could be greatly reduced in response to the concerns about roadless terrain and woodpecker habitat.

Benes said last month that revisions could reduce the 40 million board feet projected in the preferred alternative by anywhere from 20 to 75 percent.

Riverwind said he wants the Forest Service to stay out of any of the “uninventoried roadless” acreage, but that harvest would still be possible in the roaded, managed areas.

“I would prefer to see the community get some volume out of this,” he said.

The County Court, legal counsel and industry representatives traveled to Portland for the Aug. 3 meeting with regional Forest Service officials. Also on hand for the session were representatives of the American Forest Resources Council (AFRC).

County Judge Mark Webb said the group addressed the questions that had been raised about the draft EIS, “and made proposals to address them.”

He and the commissioners said they made it clear they expect the Forest Service to do the right thing – legally, environmentally and for the community.

“We stood pretty ?rmly that we don’t want to entertain the option of another alternative for the sale,” said Myers.

Webb said the Forest Service of?cials seemed “receptive to our comments.”

However, he wasn’t sure if the county would win the argument or just end up with a new strategy for future battles.

Commissioner Boyd Britton said he’s willing to “go for broke” to get a sale, but not to settle for a severely reduced sale.

“We’re not interested in scraps,” he said.

Britton said the Forest Service must address environmental, social and economic concerns and not focus on just one area.

“It’s a three-legged stool,” he said.

Britton said that so far, it seems that the environmental groups have the ear of the regional of?ce and the community needs are shut out.

He said the economic interest should be clear. A shutdown of logging on the forest threatens the survival of the mills, he noted, and that would have ripple effects throughout the local community.

Riverwind said he wants to see the agency adhere to the laws.

“I respect the community’s concerns,” he added. “As a society, we’re in sort of a transition point.”