Thank you, thank you to all correspondents. We got a record amount of mail this month, mostly with suggestions on what to call the massive logging plan for the Sierra Nevada that the Bush administration is proposing.

Meanwhile, we turn our attention northward, where the agencies are again using the pretext of a post-fire salvage operation to execute one of the biggest timber sales in the nation's history on the one hand while on the other hand they propose to do fatal damage to the Aquatic Conservation Strategy of the Northwest Forest Plan. And on the third hand, they spout a thoroughly confusing series of statements on salmon and how hatchery fish will be treated in the context of the Endangered Species Act.

The post-fire salvage sale involves the aftermath of the 2002 Biscuit Fire in southern Oregon and northern California. The Forest Service originally said it would log around 100 million board-feet of timber, then boosted that number to more than a half-billion board feet, and on June 1 announced that it had settled on something like 380 million board-feet, making it one of the biggest timber sales ever. Critics including the Environmental Protection Agency estimate that a sale of that magnitude would damage streams and habitat. Others calculate that it would cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. One group of environmentalists suggests a modest sale of twenty to thirty million board feet; others insist there should be no logging. The administration added a last-minute fillip: a new 60-million acre wilderness, to be suggested to Congress. There's a long way to go, but the 380 million board-foot proposal will very likely end up in court.

There's much more information available here on the Biscuit Sale, on the Northwest Forest Plan and its Aquatic Conservation Strategy, and here on counting salmon. Suffice it to say for the nonce that your Earthjustice attorneys have jumped back into the fray -- from one fray into another is more like it. In addition to the possible Biscuit Sale litigation, they are contesting the ACS attack in court. Once the salmon-counters sort out exactly what it is they're planning to do, that one is likely to end up in court as well. If the government continues to say that hatchery-bred fish will be listed along with their wild cousins, the developers will sue again and we'll probably jump in to defend the policy. It all depends. Never a dull moment.

Tom Turner, Senior Editor
yourturn@earthjustice.org