Gordon Creek Timber Sale

There is a healthy amount of riparian plants on either sides of the bank. Through the center of the photo there is a stream rushing out of a culvert into a small pool.

The Gordon Creek Timber Sale is proposed in public forests administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). This project proposes to log over the intake for the Corbett Water District. The Corbett Water District, as well as the Portland Water District has come out against this project. According to the maps (see below) it will log a mix of young and old-growth forest. As well, there are eight miles of new roads proposed. In March 2009, the BLM released a revised Environmental Assessment (EA) dropping some acres of the old-growth and expanding the no-cut buffers on the streams, thanks to the many comments that were sent in response to the first EA. They continue to plan logging on steep slopes along the Gordon Creek and have lifted some of the seasonal restrictions. We encourage people, if you have been to this timber sale and have not submitted comments, to do so before April 6th to the contact listed below. You can review the updated EA, posted below as well.

Bark Concerns

There appears to be a hiking trail that the BLM uses for educational purposes for area students within one of the units. Along this trail are a few Doug firs with 4 to 5 feet DBHs.

Resources for Comment-Writing

Roads

Bark does not support the building of new roads in the Mt. Hood watershed system. Of particular concern for this project is the new road construction over the North Fork of Gordon Creek. Currently, this section of the creek is free-flowing and putting a culvert into the stream-way would drastically change the characteristics of the stream, not to mention causing huge damage to the banks.
Reconstruction Miles: 17