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Forest’s timber sales still falling
H&N 11/6/06
BAKER CITY, Ore. (AP) — Timber sales in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest remain a fraction of the size of the peak years in the 1980s, officials say.
Between 1976 and 1990, the Wallowa-Whitman sold an average of about 203 million board-feet per year. During the past federal fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, the forest sold just 25 million board-feet of timber.
The forest has not sold more than 54 million boardfeet since fiscal 1992, said Carla Monismith, Wallowa-Whitman timber sales officer at the agency’s headquarters in Baker City. Several factors have contributed to the dramatic decline.
In 1993, the Forest Service — as part of a compromise with environmental groups that threatened to sue the agency — agreed to stop cutting trees bigger than 21 inches in diameter in Eastern Oregon national forests, including the Wallowa-Whitman.