Scientist blames violation on rush to sell timber

Moreover, they say BLM memos they've obtained through a Freedom of Information request indicate that officials ignored the advice of their wildlife biologists to protect the Siskiyou Mountain and Del Norte salamanders.

A former BLM wildlife biologist has backed up their charges.

"The BLM's own biologists are telling management that these surveys are not legal," said Tom Dimitre, spokesman for the Southern Oregon Forest Coalition. "However, management seems to be ignoring the advice of their own experts in favor of getting the timber cut out at all costs.

"This is outrageous behavior on the part of the BLM and is certainly not acceptable," he added.

BLM officials flatly deny the allegations that any laws have been broken.

"We are following our Medford District resource management plan -- that's our record of decision," district spokeswoman Karen Perault said. "The Medford District plan is consistent with the record of decision with the Northwest Forest Plan. It also provides more specific local direction.

"We feel we have been in compliance with survey-and-management protocol in effect at the time," she added.

However, because of the potential for litigation, the agency would not respond to particular allegations raised by the coalition, she said.

The exacting scientific requirements of the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan lists the salamanders as among the more than 400 old-growth-resident species identified by scientists as at risk of extinction. The plan requires these so-called survey-and-manage species to be protected, even in forests earmarked for timber production.

To find the survey-and-manage species, which include everything from amphibians to snails, foresters must conduct surveys in the right season and under the right conditions.

For instance, the scientific protocol for a proper Del Norte salamander survey requires recording 30 variables, including air and soil temperature, humidity, elevation, slope and weather conditions.

The agency rejected calls for the suspension of timber sales until survey records can be checked by salamander experts and members of the coalition. "We have no evidence (that any regulations have been violated)," Perault said.

Not true, responded former BLM wildlife biologist Laura Finley, one of the biologists whose memos are cited by the coalition. She worked for the BLM from 1991 until last fall, when she transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

She said she was directed by Grants Pass Resources Area Manager Bob Korfhage to conduct a survey outside the protocol for Del Norte salamanders in May 1997 to enable the agency to put the Savage Green timber sale up for bid.

"In order to sell the sale, we had to have the surveys done," she said Thursday afternoon. "But ... we were no longer within the temperature and humidity requirement.

"We were directed by the area manager to do the third visit outside of protocol," she added. "We went ahead and did it."

Finley was quick to observe that the incident, which she said resulted in her and Korfhage going "finger to finger" in a heated discussion, was rare.

"We in the wildlife shop wouldn't have done them (surveys outside protocol) but we were directed by the area manager," she added.

BLM officials did not respond to Finley's comments, again citing potential litigation.

The coalition's allegations also included documents from other BLM biologists as well as a Forest Service wildlife biologist that indicate many of the salamander surveys violated regulations.

The Savage Green sale, which includes 4.7 million board feet of timber, is one of the units in which the coalition had asked that operations stop until survey records can be checked. The sale is about 10 miles south of Grants Pass.

The other unit in which logging is occurring includes the 9.6 million-board-foot Middle Thompson sale in the Thompson Creek drainage.