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retary's directive. I imagine it is that way throughout the North- 

 west. 



Mr. Lyons. I would suggest to you, Congresswoman, that if they 

 have stopped, it has been a temporary stop while some additional 

 analysis and evaluation proceeds. What the Secretary's directive 

 does is not stop timber sales. What it does is it clarifies which sal- 

 vage timber sales should proceed under the emergency rules pro- 

 mulgated by the Congress and which sales should proceed through 

 the normsd salvage sale program. That is the only distinction that 

 exists. 



So I would be stunned if all salvage sales in your district came 

 to a halt. In fact, I can assure you that, since Jack has been out 

 there and talked with folks, that we are pleased with the perform- 

 ance of forest supervisors in that portion of Idaho in dealing with 

 the salvage directive that they have received. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Secretary Lyons, I just wonder if you could be 

 in touch with James Caswell, the supervisor of the Clearwater Na- 

 tional Forest, where sales that his people had been working on for 

 a year, three major sales were brought to a screeching halt with 

 the release of the Secretary's new rules and regulations. 



Mr. Lyons. The only sales that would have been impacted in 

 that regard, Congresswoman, would have been sales in roadless 

 areas, and I would clarify that one of the objectives of the Sec- 

 retaries directive is to try and place priority on those sales that 

 ought to be a priority from the standpoint of threat to life or prop- 

 erty, sales that might be imminently susceptible to fire. 



In those instances where roadless area sales were proceeding, we 

 provided direction that those sales should proceed through the nor- 

 mal process rather than the expedited process unless there is a 

 threat that they are imminently susceptible to fire. So that would 

 be the only distinction that is drawn. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Mr. Secretary, what is the normal process? I 

 do not think we have a normal process anymore. Dr. Thomas? 



Mr. Thomas. I think that some of the sales that Caswell may 

 have under consideration are those that had been put forward and 

 had been appealed and the appeal had been upheld and then we 

 had proceeded with certain portions of that operation under the 

 salvage regulation. That may be one that we have been instructed 

 to — that was one set of sales, not that one specifically, but that one 

 criteria was one thing we were told to pay close attention to, and 

 I suspect that is one of the sales that he is dealing with. 



The other one, the question is what is a normal procedure for a 

 salvage sale? 



Mrs. Chenoweth. I wanted to know what is normal these days. 



Mr. Thomas. Oh, boy. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Mr. Caswell said in a newspaper report that 

 it is not clear yet whether these sales will be held up three or four 

 months or until after the salvage law expires. If these sales do not 

 fall under the criteria of having been appealed and upheld, would 

 you be willing to release them immediately? 



Mr. Thomas. What we are going to do is follow the instructions 

 in the Secretary's letter, which we have clarified out there, some 

 of them, if it has a green component above a certain level, our in- 

 structions are that I would review those sales. So I am not — there 



