An auction was supposed to be held Thursday to sell millions of board feet of timber rightinOregon, but right now no one is sure when the that sale will take place.
High on a mountain side near Williams, there sits thousands of acres of forest land and with a closer look you might be able to see a spotted owl or two, maybe even more.
It’s something that the Bureau of Land Management is trying to figure out.
“The judge ruled that we hadn’t followed proper rule making procedures and ruled it invalid,” said Jim Whittington, BLM spokesman said.
Whittington is referring to a federal court ruling, postponing the sale of three timber areas including in Williams, Roseburg and Eugene.
BLMneeds to recalculate and determine how many owls are in the forest until then no sales will take place.
But officials with the Southern Oregon Timber Industry Association say that they don’t think that the postponement will last long, meaning trees could soon be coming down.
“I think the sale will come through and come quickly. It better because they are important. Our infrustruce is fragile as evidence with Rough and Ready, they couldn’t get federal timber,” said David Schotte, from the Southern Oregon Timber Industry Association.
But it also comes down to the health of the forest.
Roughly 500 acres close to the Williams site was lost last week in the Pacifica fire, and Schott believes it could have been much worse.
There’s no word on when a final decision on when these sales could continue. But that will need to happen sometime before October because that’s when their fiscal year ends.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.