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Testimony by Bonnie Phillips 

 July 23. 1996 



We were pleased and relieved at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling 

 on the murrelet. We thank the court for ruling on the side of science; we wish 

 Congress would do the same. This ruling, however, did not solve cill of our 

 problems, as the rider still requires the Forest Service to provide "like and kind" 

 trees as substitute volume. We may be trading one old growth sale for another 

 old growth sale— and the Forest Service says that they cannot provide this 

 volume without violating the Clinton Forest Plan. Tliere certainly is no real gain 

 in this. In addition, there are many old growth sales in murrelet habitat that 

 have never been surveyed for murrelets, including 1,000 acres alone on BLM 

 land in western Oregon. This old growth has already been logged, or will be 

 logged by the end of this season. 



Since the courts ruled that the Section 318 component of the rider applied 

 to all sales between 1989-1995 throughout all of Washmgton State and Oregon, 

 other old growth on both westside and eastside forests also continues to fall. 



2. Clinton Plan, or Option 9 Sales . This component of the rider affects cdl sales 

 which had decision notices signed after July 27, 1995 through December 31, 

 1996, in the public lands managed by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land 

 Management under the Clinton Plan. Although the rider does not tell the 

 federm agencies that they cannot follow the Plan, it does allow the agencies to 

 short-circuit many of the planning processes. Further, citizens are denied the 

 right to file admmistrative appeals, and any legal challenge for Option 9 sales 

 must be made vdthin 15 days of sale advertisement. Altliough a legal challenge, 

 as I stated, can theoretically be mounted, the court has basically ruled that no 

 environmental laws can be used as a basis for this challenge, which makes this 

 an empty gesture on the part of this Congress. 



Violations of standards and guidelines of the Clinton Plan have become, in 

 some cases, rampant. Citizen rights under our democracy to have a say on how 

 our public forests are managed have been taken away from us. Cooperation at 

 the Ranger District level can no longer be anticipatea. Opportunities to work 

 out differences and mitigation have been lost. Tliere is no longer any need for 

 the federal agencies to pay any attention to citizen concern because there is no 

 clout behind our efforts. 



Consequently, protecting the forest ecosystem and following the stcmdards 

 and guidelines of the Plan have taken a back seat to the rush to provide timber 

 sales. Staff downsizing and budget cuts, as well as demoralization of agency 

 personnel, nuxed signals from Congress and often the Forest Service itself, has 

 created the atmosphere in the agencies of isolating them from the very 

 communities that they are supposed to serve. 



In the Washington State National Forests which I know best, the worst 

 violations are coming from the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Currently this 

 National Forest plans to expand their sale program by 33% and overshoot their 

 timber target by nearly 14 million board feet. Over two thirds of the sales are 

 within key watersheds, areas designated to provide high quality water to local 



