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Mendocino National Forest 

 11. Blands/Steel Salvage Sale 



Ranger District Volume (mmbf) Project Acres Logging Acres 



Covelo 4 7.000 N/A 



Location 



This sales lies within the watershed of the Middle Fork of the Eel River, a Key Watershed in the Northwest 

 Forest Plan. 



Impact 



The Middle Fork Eel River is a State and Federal Wild and Scenic River, and home to the largest remaining 

 population of California's threatened summer-run steelhead. These salmon-sized trout wait out the summer 

 months in the deep pools of the Middle Fork until Fall rains send them upstream to spawn. Their survival 

 depends on clear cold water entering the Middle Fork from its tributaries throughout the summer. This 

 watershed is known for its steep, unstable slopes and erosive soils which have been highly degraded by decades 

 of logging and road building. Its "hummocky topography, steep bare rock feces are indicative of landslides or 

 debris slides . . . [and] reflect the extreme instability of the slopes of the Middle Fork Eel River" (Summer 

 Steelhead Management Plan, Pg. 14). In (act, the Middle Fork's yield of suspended sediment per square mile 

 is already fifteen times that of the Mississippi River (ibid). Under the Wild and Scenic River Act, the Forest 

 Service has a legal mandate to ensure recovery and protection of the Middle Fork Eel's dwindling fishery. 

 Despite evidence that logging steep, unstable and fragile soils within this watershed would cause increased 

 sedimentation and further loss of fish habitat, the Blands/Steel salvage sale proposes logging scattered over 

 7,000 acres. 



TTie proposed salvage sale would include the construction of new roads in the heart of this canyon. These 

 roads would provide greater human access to otherwise inaccessible areas where the steelhead have thus far 

 found refuge from poaching rings. The summer-run steelhead are not the only species threatened by this tim- 

 ber sale. Rather than protecting the upland habitat reserves for old-growth dependent species, the sale pro- 

 poses to cut the remaining old-growth trees throughout the project area. Of particular concern is logging of 

 old trees near or within Protected Activity Centers for the northern spotted owl. 



For additional information: 



Don Morris, Willits Environmental Center, 707/459 4715 

 Rvan Henson, California Wilderness Coalition, 916/758 0380 



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