Summary: Crews were allowed to log the Coastal Range parcel, where two men died last week, despite a state warning of danger

The steep Coastal Range logging parcel that turned into a mud-and- debris slide last week, killing two men, was allowed to be logged even though it had been identified as a high risk for a landslide, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry.

An inspector determined in September that portions of the 100-acre harvest unit, owned by Mapleton-based Davidson Industries Inc. and located off Fiddle Creek Road, was prone to landslides because of steep terrain and the amount of rainfall, said Jim Cathcart, spokesman for the Forestry Department.

In 1997, the Legislature passed an interim bill allowing the department to halt logging on parcels deemed a high risk for slides if public safety was a consideration. The Fiddle Creek timber harvest was allowed to proceed, Cathcart said, because the company met more stringent safety requirements and because below the area of a potential landslide there were no human dwellings or roads on which motorists traveled.

An inspection report of the slide, written by department geotechnical engineers and foresters, says that the company had been required to cut trees so they fell at an angle, reducing ground vibration that could start a slide. The company also was required to remove the cut logs by cables instead of bringing in heavy machinery.

Forestry Department inspectors returned to the site on Feb. 11, when about 30 percent of the trees were down, according to the report. The area where the men worked had a slope of 110 percent, "too steep to walk on without holding onto vegetation or rock," the report said. The Feb. 18 slide began when the top of the hillside gave way, causing thick mud, massive amounts of debris and about 100 logs to rapidly flow 500 feet downhill.

Robert "Butch" Winona, 48, and Charles "Max" Lee, 60, both Davidson Industry loggers, were caught in the logjam during the slide. Winona's body was discovered the following day, and Lee's was found Monday, after an extensive search of the area and removal of the trees, each of which measured 4 to 5 feet in diameter, according to Lane County authorities.

Rain-gauge stations showed that as much as 21/2 inches of rain fell in the 24 hours before the slide, with as much as a quarter-inch falling every hour from 6 to 10 a.m. that day, according to the report.

Aubrey Pendergrass, operations manager of Davidson Industries, said the heavy rainfall in the area last week did not create alarm about the landslide potential.

"In Western Oregon, we work in the rain all the time," he said. "We don't notice if it's 1 inch a day or 3 inches a day. It's just wet on your rain jacket."

Partly in response to a November 1997 Douglas County mudslide that destroyed a house and killed four people, state lawmakers in 1997 formed a task force to evaluate public safety around landslides.

Gail Achterman, chairwoman of that task force and a Portland attorney, said her group had proposed a bill requiring the Department of Forestry to consider public safety in potential landslides. Senate Bill 12, which received its first public hearing Thursday in Salem, would require highway signs warning of potential landslides and notification to homeowners as part of the zoning process.

But Roy Keene, a local public interest forester, said SB12 did not go far enough in protecting the health and safety of the public or of people who work on the land.

Do you have news of inland Douglas or inland Lane counties? You can reach Debra Gwartney at 541-342-7797 or by e-mail at gwartney@rio.com.