Opponents of the value recovery project believe the Forest Service timber sale plan is designed solely to benefit the timber industry and does not address the ecological needs of the area. They claim that there is no evidence that an increased fire risk exists if salvage logging is not done. If burned trees are logged this year, they won't be able to provide important wildlife habitat in future years, forest advocates point out. To help the timber companies get the wood out, the agency would recondition approximately 269 miles of existing roads in the fire area and construct approximately 13 miles of temporary roads. The action would leave only four snags per acre and no other particular wildlife protection.
Snags are important for wildlife habitat and soil regeneration after a fire.
Environmentalists have long opposed building roads for timber companies in America's national forests. There are currently 377,000 miles of road in national forests, eight times the length of the interstate highway system. Millions of dollars are spent on road-building and maintenance each year. Forest advocates claim that roads result in harm to wildlife, serious erosion problems and polluted water supplies.