The Bear Paw and Paw Chopper sales are among four Umpqua National Forest sales totaling 26 million board feet of timber over 1,200 acres. At the time the first of the sales were made, in October 1996, about 20 protesters turned out at the UNF headquarters in Roseburg. Protesters vowed a nonviolent campaign of rallies, phone calls and letter writing to prevent timber companies from harvesting the sales. Environmental groups opposed the sales because of their proximity to the roadless area and because they include harvesting old growth trees in some roadless areas. The sales were approved originally with public hearings in 1992, then later adjusted to meet the new standards of President Clinton's Northwest Forest Plan.
Environmentalists maintain the adjusted plan is flawed.
But under the salvage rider legislation of 1995, forest Supervisor Don Ostby was allowed to authorize the previously approved sales without giving opponents an opportunity to appeal. Ostby had said the adjusted sales expanded the number of acres for harvest but softened the impact on the land by leaving more trees in place per acre. Environmental groups contend the forest has focused its timber program in its easternmost Diamond Lake Ranger District saying the Endangered Species Act listing of the Umpqua cutthroat trout limited logging in the Umpqua watershed to the west. Forest Service officials have said the sales occur on land that Clinton's forest plan had designated for timber production long before the cutthroat was listed. Of 71 million board feet of timber the UNF expects to produce from last year, 34.4 million was earmarked for the Diamond Lake district.