No one bid on the fire-killed timber on the Deschutes National Forest last month, even after the Forest Service invoked a new emergency clause that allows logging to begin immediately, rather than going through three months of environmental appeals, if the government will lose money due to the delay.
Timber industry representatives said after the auction that they did not bid on the wood because it was already too damaged by insects and rot to be worth the cost of its harvest.
Another auction had been set for this week, but was withdrawn after the sale's emergency status was revoked based on new estimates of the timber's deterioration in value that were lower than previous estimates. If the timber sells, Nov. 15 is the earliest logging could begin.
``Basically, we felt that its value had declined enough that it didn't justify exercising the emergency status determination,'' Bill Anthony, Sisters district ranger, told The Bulletin in Bend.
Agency officials originally estimated that the timber would lose $201,898 in value over the 105-day appeals period. But recent analyses predict it will lose only $31,000, Anthony said. The discrepancy was likely due to further deterioration of the wood and incorrect predictions about the timber market.
Under the new Healthy Forests Restoration Act, environmental appeals of logging on federal lands can be denied if the delay would cause a ``substantial loss of economic value'' to the government.
Environmentalists had criticized the decision to declare the first Eyerly salvage sale an emergency, accusing the Forest Service of trying to push the logging to completion before the public had time to respond to the project.
