277 



Quotes from the October 3, 1995, letter to Forest Service Supervisor John Lowe: 



Ftvg I Impoua River B asin timber sales: 



"In that conference, the FS submined a Biological Assessment (BA) that concluded that the 

 four of the five timber sales were likely to jeopardize Umpqua River cutthroat trout 

 Although the aquatic screei^s had been run on these sales, the recommendations made by 

 "Screening and Review Teams" fit)m the Umpqua National Forest and the FS's Regional 

 OflSce, the recommendations made by these teams were not fully implemented in the timber 

 sale designs Consequently, significant adverse aquatic impacts remained and the BA 

 conduded that four of the five timber sales were likely to jeopardize Umpqua River sea-run 

 cutthroat trout (the fifth sale, Honeytree, was determined to be 'Likely to Adversely 

 Afiect')" (Pg 2 of Memo) 



'74MFS does not believe that these particular actions can be modified to completely avoid 

 adverse effects to anadromous sabnonids." (Pg. 2 of Memo) 



"Like the South Fork Umpqua, many tier 1 key watersheds have already experienced 

 significant timbo' harvest entry and road-related disturbance in the past, and currently exhibit 

 degraded baseline environmental conditions The recent round ofwcaershed analyses, done 

 in key watersheds in 1994-5, confirm that the typical tier I key watershed as a whole is 

 barely able to provide the high quality habitats anadromous sabnomds need to survive and 

 reproduce; many dtaw evidence ofhi^ sediment loads, elevated water temperatures, loss 

 of large woody debris, reduced channel sinuosity, increased channel width, and loss of 

 overall instream habitat complexity. While usually only a portion of a tier 1 key watershed 

 is fiiOy functional, these 'last best habitats' are critical to the long-term survival of the species, 

 and it is in fact these remaining high quality areas that are most at risk from Ae 318 sales. 

 In the Elk River, for example (see list enclosed), the 318 sales are located in the North Fork 

 subwatershed, which has the best habitat conditions and supports the largest salmonid 

 populations. ... High concentrations of 318 sale activity within a proposed ESU are 

 particularly apparent in the Oregon Coast ESU for coho salmon (proposed as "threatened") 

 and the Umpqua Cutthroat Trout ESU (proposed as "endangered")" (Pg. 3 of Memo) 



This Memo also raised serious concenis with 3 18 sales east of the Cascades in the Wallowa-Whitman 

 National Forest as well, some of which are likely to lead to extinctions. 



Net fishing closures will result from reduced populations of marbled murrdets: 



Maibled murrdets nest only in coastal old-growth forests, but feed out at sea where they sometimes 

 can get caught in commercial fishing nets and drown. Between 90% and 95% of the maibled 

 murrdet's old-growth habitat is now gone, driving it to near extinctioa Since the marbled murrelet 

 is listed as "threatened" under the ESA, the commerdal ofi&hore net fishery is operated under an 

 "incidental take permit," and accidental catch of these threatened seabirds has been carefully limited. 



