11 



There were several winter storm events that contributed to 

 downing significant amounts of timber in the Butte Falls and Pros- 

 pect and Umpqua ranger districts. Logging contractors have 

 cleared campgrounds and roads and are working on the matrix 

 lands. They have found double the amount of wood estimated, so 

 the amount of downed wood is probably two to three times the esti- 

 mated 20 million board feet. The team is concentrating on what 

 can be done in the LSRs, and I have maps to show you, if I could 

 step away from the microphone for a minute. 



Mr. Hansen. Go ahead. We will recognize you for a minute 

 longer. 



Ms. KUPILLAS. This is the Prospect area. The areas of snowdown/ 

 blowdown, they are hard to see but they are little red blips on this. 

 There are about probably 40 to 60 million board feet of timber 

 down. You do not have to take a chain saw to it. These are the late 

 successional reserve areas in brown that cover these. The matrix 

 lands are being cleared. 



But by the time you put a scenic, which is in the green, a scenic 

 waterway through the middle and then take out all the riparian 

 areas, then you will see that we have a significant problem in re- 

 moving any of this timber. 



The problem is that we have so many overlays. The etimologists 

 have told us that we will lose three green standing trees for every 

 downed tree that is there, and we have reports that show it could 

 be far more significant than that. The fire specialists tell us that 

 there already was an overburden of wood on the floor of the forest. 

 That could be a fire hazard, and now this has escalated to an ex- 

 treme hazard. We need to remove the wood immediately. 



The problem that we are having is, I have talked to everybody 

 from all different levels to find out what we can do. The final deci- 

 sion, some people say that we cannot remove any wood from LSRs. 

 Some say that it will be up to the forest supervisors to do it. Some 

 say that the regional ecosystem office has the final say about it, or 

 at least it is a screen that it has to go through. Anyway, it is very 

 confusing, who has the final say, but we are working on this. The 

 Medford BLM district also has downed timber and they will do 

 whatever we decide on this team to do. 



I guess, in summary — oh, there was also some suggestion that 

 the ecosystem office in the White House might also be involved in 

 this decision. 



I suggest that this plan should be clarified and simplified, less 

 prescriptive, letting the local supervisors have flexibility necessary 

 to manage and make it clear that wood production is part of the 

 management. As a local elected official, I have devoted two terms 

 to helping empower and strengthen local communities. There is a 

 great deal of mistrust in a top-down prescriptive system heavy with 

 regulation and laced with punishment. The system of local 

 empowerment I am describing is built on trust and confidence and 

 people making right decisions in local communities with their local 

 forest. Surely this is the system we want for the United States. 

 Thank you. 



[The statement of Ms. Kupillas may be found at end of hearing.] 



Mr. Hansen. Thank you. 



