Conservation groups gathered outside the Bureau of Land Management’s Springfield office Thursday morning to protest a timber sale in the Cascade foothills of Lane County.
The logging project is on O & C land managed by the BLM. Half of the proceeds of their timber sales go to rural counties. The BLM says they reduced size of the sale by half to 49 acres and plan to leave older trees and preserve riparian areas. But Josh Laughlin with Cascadia Wildlands says the area is one of the few roadless, old-growth forests near Eugene.
Laughlin: “It’s really the last place the BLM should be offering a timber sale. It’s really striking the wrong chord for recreation enthusiasts and the greater Eugene community who use this area as a treasured backyard playground.
The timber sale is near popular hiking areas at Mount June and Hardesty Mountain, southeast of Eugene. Laughlin says Cascadia Wildlands will try to stop the logging project.
