The controversial Baby Brown timber sale is moving forward.
Under plans by the state, up to 20 million board feet of timber on 1,000 acres of forest near the Klehini River would be logged. The Division of Forestry is planning to put the sale out to bid in spring of 2016.
Lynn Canal Conservation, Greenpeace and Oregon-based Cascadia Wildlands filed an administrative appeal of the sale decision in April that was rejected by the state. None of the groups met a Nov. 9 deadline for elevating the appeal to state Superior Court, according to Division of Forestry officials.
LCC president Eric Holle said in an interview the group had identified elements of the sale were legally questionable – including a “faulty” economic analysis. “The problem is we’d lose court costs if the appeal was not successful. I thought we had a good case but unless you have a high degree of certainty you’re going to win, you risk losing a lot of money.”
Holle said he thought the group also made a strong case that the sale would cause hydrological impacts on salmon.