US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today (Wednesday) announced a new plan for managing federal forests in Western Oregon. Conservationists say the plan is not ideal.

Last July the Obama Administration scrapped the Bureau of Land Management’s Western Oregon Plan Revision.

Secretary Salazar says the new plan will provide economic certainty for Oregon’s timber industry while protecting endangered species. He announced 62 timber sales on BLM land. Dan Kruse with Cascadia Wildlands in Eugene says he’s pleased most of the proposed sales are thinning projects in younger forests.

Kruse: “The problem with it is that they’re continuing to propose these controversial projects like Fall Creek, like some of the others in the Eugene district and the Medford district where they’re proposing clear-cutting, where they’re proposing logging in other stands and it’s not the kind of change we’re hoping for.”

The plan proposes logging 266 acres in the Fall Creek area outside Eugene.  Oregon Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Peter DeFazio called the plan a good first step.