Ground Zero In Timber Wars Shows Signs Of Peace

As the battles moved from tree sitting to courtrooms, little national forest timber went to the mills, and thinning projects were scattered and not focused around the homes they were supposed to protect.

Now, another corner has been turned. The landscape here offers a hint of how national forests around the country might look as a result of a new focus on preventing wildfires and global warming, and enhancing fish and wildlife habitat.

Environmentalists are welcoming the sound of chain saws helping to reduce fire danger and restore ecosystem balance, and they're not alone.

The last sawmill standing in the area has adopted green certification because it makes sense for its struggling bottom line, and the local forest ranger has 10 years of work planned out covering 10,000 acres — including timber sales that will provide logs for the mill — without a single protest, appeal or lawsuit to stop them.

Siskiyou Project and Lomakatsi, a forest restoration outfit, have signed a groundbreaking contract with the Forest Service to cooperate not only to restore forests, but to provide logs to feed sawmills and biomass to fuel the lumber drying kilns and biomass generators they have built while adapting to a greener economy.