10/1/1997 244

MASSIVE SOUTHERN UTAH SALVAGE SALE APPEALED-FOREST SERVICE TRIES TO EXTEND SALVAGE RIDER

The Southwest Center has appealed the South Manti salvage timber sale on the Manti-La Sal National Forest in southern Utah. The Forest Service wants to log 22 million board feet of trees because of "beetle epidemics," even though it admits logging will not control the infestation.

In 1993, the Forest announced it would prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on the sale, but canceled the review when Congress passed the infamous Logging without Laws rider in 1995, allowing them to log without public involvement or environmental restrictions. Fifty million board feet were wiped out before the rider expired. The Forest now wants to go back for an additional 22 million board feet, but wants to use the same vacuous analysis it was able to get away with under the salvage rider.

The sale was independently appealed by the Wild Utah Forest Campaign.