For many years the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest has proposed the Upper Briggs Restoration Project on the Wild Rivers Ranger District, and for many years Klamath Forest Alliance (KFA) has opposed the old-growth logging portions of the project. Located on Briggs Creek, a beautiful tributary of the Illinois River, the Upper Briggs Restoration Project was estimated to produce approximately 30 million board feet of timber in over 4,000 acres of commercial logging units.

Ironically, after claiming in the original  Environmental Assessment (first scoped in 2016) that “untreated” stands were particularly vulnerable to high-severity fire effects, the entire Briggs Creek watershed burned at 82% low severity during the 2018 Klondike-Taylor Fire. In fact, nearly all units proposed for logging in the Upper Briggs Restoration Project underburned during the 2018 Klondike-Taylor Fire, demonstrating significant natural fire resilience, and ability to maintain their old forest canopy.

At the time, KFA argued that the restoration of fire, its biological processes, and its effect on fuel loading had achieved project objectives and proved many of the agency’s assumptions for analysis invalid. For example, while the agency claimed heavy fuel loading and historic fire suppression had so badly skewed fuel and vegetation dynamics that ecosystems were outside the range of variability, in need of restoration, and almost guaranteed to burn at elevated levels of severity, actual fire effects in the 2018 Klondike-Taylor Fire told a very different story, and the Briggs Creek area sustained largely low severity understory fire effects.

Arguing in the Decision Record that the low severity Klondike-Taylor Fire did not burn enough trees on Briggs Creek, the Forest Service continued forward, approved the project,  and proposed the logging of large, old-growth trees that survived the recent fires in the area.  Following project approval, KFA filed an Administrative Objection identifying the changed environmental circumstances due to the wildfire, the faulty Forest Service analysis, and the beneficial fire effects associated with the 2018 Klondike-Taylor Fire as issues of concern, while also objecting to the old growth logging proposals.

We also specifically identified numerous old-growth logging units in the Secret Creek watershed, along the Secret Way Trail and on the Secret Way Spur Trail. These units contained both old-growth characteristics and natural fire resilience. Additionally, KFA documented a northern spotted owl in the area following the 2018 Klondike-Taylor Fire. In our objection, we asked that these units be canceled, but the agency unfortunately refused.

More recently, we also appealed in writing to the Deputy Chief of the Forest Service, Christopher French, asking him to spare the old-growth forest units in the Upper Briggs Restoration Project and protect them under the National Old-Growth Amendment. The National Old-Growth Amendment was developed from an Executive Order signed by President Biden that directs federal land managers to protect old-growth forests for climate resilience. The Forest Service has proposed interim measures (inadequate as they are) to protect old-growth forests and has agreed to review currently proposed timber sales for compliance with those old-growth protections. Unfortunately, Deputy Chief Christopher French refused to consider the Upper Briggs Restoration Project under this review, claiming arbitrarily it did not apply to already approved, but not yet implemented projects.

In response, the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest proposed the Secret Timber Sale, including the worst portions of the Upper Briggs Restoration Project on Secret Creek, along the Secret Way Trail, on the Secret Way Spur Trail, and near Horse Creek Meadows. This sale includes most of the controversial logging approved in the Upper Briggs Restoration Project, the majority of the commercial timber volume and most of the old forest targeted for logging. Recently we spent two days monitoring the Secret Timber Sale and its tree removal mark, and we are unfortunately incredibly concerned by the old-growth logging proposed and the clear timber grab being implemented on Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest lands.

According to the Decision Record for this project, “Thinning activities would focus on removing subdominant trees (primarily Douglas-fir) from the understory to achieve desired stand densities, while leaving all dominant (largest, oldest) overstory trees and a multi-layered structure.” Yet in practice, the timber sale proposes the removal of many dominant old trees, including old-growth Douglas fir up to 53″ in diameter.

As we have said now for many years, numerous timber sale units in the Secret Creek watershed contain highly resilient old forest habitats, that burned at largely low severity during the 2018 Klondike-Taylor Fire. Despite underburning throughout large portions of the watershed and in nearly all the proposed timber sale units, the Forest Service is now targeting these old stands with heavy commercial logging prescriptions that would remove very large, old trees, dramatically reduce canopy cover, degrade northern spotted owl habitat conditions, and increase future fire risks by removing old, fire resistant trees, by regenerating dense, young, highly flammable vegetation, and by leaving behind logging slash.

The 2018 Klondike-Taylor Fire behaved as fires do in the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains, with lower severity effects in the canyon and on north and east facing slopes, while higher severity effects are more commonly found on both south and west facing slopes, in non-forest plant communities, in plantation stands, and near the ridgetops in higher slope positions. Unfortunately, the Forest Service has ignored the restorative benefits of the 2018 Klondike-Taylor Fire and will maximize the impacts associated with the Upper Briggs Restoration Project, by implementing the old growth logging and the inappropriately applied “pine/oak restoration treatments” in the Secret Timber Sale.

Unit 23

Unit 23 is located on the face of a low forested ridge above Secret Creek, on the Secret Way Trail. The area includes mature and old-growth forests of Douglas fir, sugar pine, ponderosa pine, tanoak, and madrone with groves of live oak on the rock outcrops and in areas with shallow, rocky soils.

In fact, in 2018, shortly after the fire was out, KFA timber sale monitors hiked the Secret Way Trail and found a northern spotted owl perched in the old-growth trees of unit 23. The owl, apparently from a nearby northern spotted owl nesting “core,” deemed the area as suitable, if not favorable foraging habitat. In fact, much of the Secret Creek canyon remains important refugia for this northern spotted owl and much of its local habitat would be negatively impacted by the Secret Timber Sale.

Occupied northern spotted owl sites with adjacent high quality foraging habitat, like those in unit 23 are increasingly rare and should be protected, not logged by federal land managers; however, we found numerous trees between 36″ and 53″ in diameter marked for removal in unit 23. This includes both relatively open grown and open spaced old trees that survived the fires, and more frequently large, legacy tree groupings proposed for heavy industrial logging.

Unit 28

Unit 28 contains beautiful groves of underburned mixed conifer forest, with complex habitat conditions, old-growth Douglas fir and sugar pine, madrone, live oak and tanoak. This large unit extends across the ridgeline dividing Secret Creek from Horse Creek, and contains a mixture of old-growth tree groupings and groves of old trees, interspersed with mid-successional forest, and younger forests subjected to previous logging operations. One portion of the unit contains mature and old-growth mixed conifer forest along the Secret Way Spur Trail just beyond unit 23. In many locations trees between 20″ and 46″ diameter are proposed for removal, including numerous locations where existing old-growth groupings are proposed for heavy thinning and the removal of large, old, fire resistant trees.

Unit 100

Unit 100 is also located on the ridgeline dividing Secret Creek from Horse Creek. The area contains a mixture of young, mid-successional and mature forests along with patches or groupings of dominant, fire resistant old-growth trees. These groupings contain significant habitat complexity, dominate the canopy, shade the forest floor, minimize understory growth, provide important mid to late successional habitat, and store abundant carbon. Unfortunately, these forests and trees are targeted with commercial logging in the Secret Timber Sale which proposes significant large tree removal and the fragmentation of old-growth clumps or groupings. In many cases, old tree groupings will be fragmented heavily, reducing the large, dominant trees and important habitat structures by half or more.

Unit 511

Unit 511, like other units in the Secret Timber Sale, includes mature and old-growth forest with very open, fire resistant characteristics and recent understory fire effects. The logging in this unit is focused on breaking up the patchy canopy and fragmenting large tree groupings. Trees up to 44″ diameter are identified for removal, damaging habitat values, reducing fire resilience, and encouraging a significant understory response through canopy removal. Furthermore, the unit, recently affected by low severity fire, contains little to no fire risk and open stand conditions.

Unit 31

Located on a relatively flat streamside terrace unit 31 is a highly productive site, and although previously thinned, the stand still contains mid to late successional forest habitat with large, dominant Douglas fir trees, relatively open stand conditions, and recent understory fire effects. Some of the largest trees in the stand including trees over 40″ diameter are marked for removal. Although open spaced, like other units in the Secret Timber Sale, the area contains a closed canopy dominated by large trees, many of which are marked for removal. The removal of this canopy will reduce the sheltering effect of the canopy and increase fire risks by regenerating dense understory vegetation, increasing ladder fuels, and eliminating many large, fire resistant trees. The overall effect will be the degradation of habitat values and a dramatic increase in fire risks.

Unit 32

Unit 32 is located above Horse Creek in the Horse Creek Meadows Wildlife Area, an area designated for the protection of wildlife. According to the Siskiyou National Forest Plan, “timber harvesting shall not be programmed and should not normally occur.” Yet, despite these recommendations, the agency has proposed to log the area anyway.

Identified as a pine/oak restoration unit, the area contains virtually no pine, scattered Douglas fir, and groves of relatively dense multi-stemmed live oak and madrone on very poor, erosive soils. Nearly every Douglas fir tree in the unit is identified for logging, clearcutting virtually all commercially viable conifer species found on site. In many locations, all Douglas fir trees are proposed for logging, leaving behind only top-killed, stump sprouting live oak and madrone. Although not old-growth forest, the timber sale mark in this unit would eliminate the stand’s entire conifer component, reduce heterogeneity, and impact stand development for many years to come. Dominated by stump sprouting, multi-stemmed hardwoods that burned a mixed severity, the mosaic of fire has restored habitat conditions and the area is not in need of thinning treatments.

Urgent Action Needed!

The Secret Timber Sale is set for timber sale auction this coming Tuesday, August 27 and we are asking the new Forest Supervisor Molly Juillerat to cancel these old-growth logging units before this auction can take place. In light of the Forest Service’s claim to be protecting old-growth forest through its National Old-Growth Amendment, we are asking Forest Supervisor Juillerat to reevaluate the project, review the timber sale mark, and cancel those units that include old-growth habitat and old-growth tree removal.

The secret is out on the Secret Timber Sale, and the old-growth timber grab planned by Forest Service timber managers must be stopped. The logging of old-growth forests and trees in the Secret Timber Sale will damage habitat for late successional species like the northern spotted owl, impact scenic values, degrade recreational resources, increase fire risks, and eliminate many of the benefits provided to these stands by the 2018 Klondike/Taylor Fire. Rather than having restorative effects, the Secret Creek Timber Sale will degrade old-growth forest habitats and fire resilient forests by removing large, legacy trees.

Contact Forest Supervisor Molly Juillerat at the following email address and ask her to:

• Cancel the upcoming timber sale auction for the Secret Creek Timber Sale and all old forest units proposed for logging. Many units are located in late successional or old-growth forests and are being targeted for large, old-growth tree removal.
• Abide by the intent of the National Old-Growth Amendment and ensure that no old-growth trees are removed in the Secret Timber Sale or any other timber sale on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.
• Institute a 2o” diameter cap for all timber sales proposed on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. This will protect fire resiliency, large old trees, structural complexity, and habitat for late successional species.
• Ensure that old-growth forests are not logged under her watch and in the first timber sale sold under her leadership as the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest supervisor.

Email contact for Forest Supervisor Molly Juillerat: molly.juillerat@usda.gov

Stop Old-Growth Logging in the Briggs Creek watershed. Cancel the Secret Timber Sale!