02/10/09 Bend
In this ‘You ask; We answer' Paul asks "Perhaps you could take a camera out to the overpass going into Sunriver (15 mi south of town). Just south of the turn in to Sunriver on the south side of Hwy 97 is a big logging operation with downed trees all lined up in rows? What is the purpose of logging so close to the road and taking so many trees and why are they lined in rows with the branches still on them?"
That project is part a Federal Forest Health Restoration Project and the "Bon timber sale."
The trees stacked on the roadside will be taken to a Gilchrist mill soon to be sold. The Bon sale covers over 3,000 acres of sixty to eighty year old pines.
"A couple of things... Number one, the aesthetics... People like to see a clean forest. That's number one, number two, and we take that into account as we're designing and implementing the timber sale. Number two, there is a risk of fire starts from people driving by and throwing out let's say a cigarette. So there's a risk of fire and often times fire starts in close proximity to the roads," explains Rolando Mendez, Deputy District Ranger with the Bend-Fort Rock office.
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