In a glaring example of the greed and corruption that permeates
the timber industry to the detriment of indigenous groups and others, the
AP reported today that the FBI's investigation into so-called salvage
logging on the Warm Springs Indian reservation in Central Oregon reveals
that the salvage sale that was supposed to be 3 million bf of blow-down and
wind-damaged trees, actually resulted in the illegal logging of 23
million bf of healthy, valuable old-growth noble and Douglas firs--which
are worth as much as $20,000 each on the export market.
The Warm Springs tribe has filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of
Indian Affairs (BIA) which was supposed to oversee the sale on the tribes
behalf. In addition to the 20 million bf of stolen timber, the suit
contends that the logged areas were not replanted as agreed, and that the
BIA knowlingly awarded the timber scaling to Columbia River Scaling, even
though they being investigated for allegations of fraud and collusion on
other timber sales on federal land. The actual exact ammount of how much
timber was cut is unavailable because scaling records are missing and/or
incomplete.
Bret Diamond
Oregon, USA
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