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Vandals damage logging equipment in salvage area

The Associated Press
5/28/2004, 6:43 p.m. PT

PRAIRIE CITY, Ore. (AP) — Vandals damaged five pieces of logging equipment being used in a controversial timber salvage operation in south Baker County, authorities said Friday. The FBI has joined the investigation.

Loggers discovered the damage Friday morning when they arrived at the site about 18 miles southeast of Prairie City, said Ken Speakman, timber manager for D.R. Johnson Lumber Co.

The company paid $3 million this month for about 30 million board-feet of timber burned during the 2002 Monument fire.

Between Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, someone poured metal shavings into the engines, fuel tanks and hydraulic systems of the logging machines, which belong to J&D Logging of Prairie City, said Baker County Undersheriff Ken Draze.

He told the Baker City Herald repair costs would be about $100,000.

The equipment includes a log loader, a de-limber, a D-5 bulldozer and two skidders, Speakman said. He expects the logging equipment will be out of commission for at least two weeks.

The loader had filled one truck with logs when the operator noticed a problem with the engine, Speakman said.

The company sends logs to its mills in John Day and Prairie City, and Speakman said production delays both places will be expensive.

Draze said Dwight Johnson, a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement agent from Pendleton, will lead the investigation.

"This is just plain terrorism," Speakman said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the vandalism but it bears hallmarks of radical environmental organizations such as the Earth Liberation Front.

The Monument salvage sale has generated controversy since Malheur National Forest officials started working on it in the fall of 2002, after the fire had burned 23,900 acres.

Linda Goodman, who heads the Forest Services regional office in Portland, authorized Malheur officials to sell the Monument sale and allow logging to start even while the project is subject to appeal by logging critics.

Goodman approved the same exemption for another salvage timber sale on the Malheur, the Flagtail project.

Environmentalists sued the Malheur National Forest over both sales, but a federal judge rejected the groups' motion for temporary injunctions. The lawsuits remain pending but logging continues.