Oct. 8, 1993

To:  Wayne Thornton From: John Redd
    Forest Supervisor c/o IVRPD
    Plumas National Forest PO Box 928
    Quincy, Ca Greenville, Ca..

Dear Mr. Thornton,
   I am writing to you regarding a matter that we have been discussing in the Quincy Library Group meetings. I want to stress that although I have been asked to serve on the QLG Steering Committee, this letter does not represent any formal correspondence by the QLG; I am writing as an individual.

   I am very concerned about the Forest Service position regarding the Last Chance and Becknell sales. Your letter of Sept. 14 to the QLG asks for reconsideration by the QLG of its request to you that these two sales be withdrawn. Your letter is quite accurate in recognizing the fragile nature of some of the bonds in the QLG, yet I also have a very deep sense of the strength and determination shared by all the QLG members that the QLG process offers the best long-term hope for our communities. QLG has discussed at length these two sales and the implications of either proceeding with them or dropping them. The QLG decision to ask you to withdraw these sales was not made lightly, or easily. I believe we all appreciate the consequences of this request. Yet there was no opposition to the final motion that these sales be withdrawn and that Susan Baremore was authorized to convey this decision to you. I feel that the QLG has sufficient understanding of the economic implications of our motion and that these were acknowledged in the QLG communication to you on Aug. 31.

   These two sales are a particularly difficult issue for many members of the QLG. They have been an issue between the Greenville District Office and the Friends of Plumas Wilderness for a long time. It is my understanding that these sale areas have been characterized as sensitive areas of special concern by the Friends of Plumas Wilderness for many years. Presumably administrators in the District Office, and in the Quincy Main Office, knew full well that these sales would be appealed. Perhaps, in retrospect, these sales should have been dropped years ago.

   Regarding the economic consequences of withdrawing these sales, both to the local communities and to the Forest Service budget process, I hope that you would agree that the QLG is trying to address both of these issues. We are proposing forest management procedures that we believe will insure stable harvest volumes that are perhaps six times the volumes projected by the Forest Service by 1995. We are also quite optimistic that we will be successful in securing significantly greater funding for the Lassen and Plumas National Forests in the future.

   In an earlier letter to you I referred to the difficulty you must have had in inheriting the many contentious issues that have characterized the management of the Plumas National Forest for many years. I hope that you agree that it is time to put these issues to rest. Please consider that withdrawing these sales will be real, concrete proof that the QLG and the Forest Service are truly capable of working together to insure the health of our forests and our communities.

Thank you,           

/s/                 

      John L. Redd