Stanislaus National Forest employees are now busy preparing advertising and bidding packages for cutting millions of board-feet of timber — a measure to reduce fire dangers and keep logs flowing to Tuolumne County's two mills.

Meanwhile, an estimated 22 million board-feet from timber sales is sitting untouched, both on the ground and stacked, on the Eldorado National Forest due to a lawsuit by two environmental groups. A federal judge, for now, has halted future timber shipments of the wood — that was to be sent to the Standard and Chinese Camp mills — and will later rule on the timber's future.

"The best that we can do is have well-designed projects where we work with (the public and their issues) and hopefully have projects that stand the test of time," said Deb Romberger, resource management program area leader for the Stanislaus.

She said the "test of time" refers to scrutiny the timber plans may get from environmentalists or anyone else.

A timber purchasers' meeting, likely to be held next month, will discuss upcoming Stanislaus timber projects with potential bidders.

One of those projects is the sale of 10.4 million board feet on the Mi-Wok Ranger District.

The forest's new five-year timber plan shows an increase in annual timber harvest from 14 million board feet last year to 38 million board-feet by 2011. This year's goal is 21 million board-feet.

A board foot is an inch-thick, foot-square piece of lumber. It takes about 16,000 board feet to build a typical 2,000 square-foot wood-frame house.

The forest plan, which also aims to reduce trees and brush that could fuel a catastrophic wildfire, was released in October and followed a Forest Service review focusing on fire-fuels reduction on three national forests in the Sierra Nevada.

The new plan was also prompted by protests from Sierra Pacific Industries sawmill workers and representatives for the Redding-based company. They had argued that the Stanislaus forest and its then-limited timber plan were to blame for layoffs at SPI's Tuolumne County mills — which didn't have enough wood to process.

Pat Ferrell, timber sale contracting officer for the Placerville-based Eldorado National Forest, said an estimated 22 million board feet — 13 million decked and 9 million cut and on the ground — are ready to be shipped.

For months, SPI workers have hauled wood from burned portions of the Eldorado National Forest to its Standard and Chinese Camp mills, in addition to a Placerville-area mill.

The timber is from trees damaged in the 2004 Power and Freds fires, which together burned thousands of acres.

A federal appeals court judge in San Francisco three weeks ago sided with two environmental groups that challenged the timber sales and barred further shipments.

A lawyer for one of the environmental groups expects a decision on the timber's future by the end of the month.

"We're hoping we'll be able to remove it," Ferrell said, "but it's up to the courts."

Ferrell said 75 million board-feet from the sales had already been shipped to sawmills before the judge intervened.

SPI spokesman Ed Bond said once warmer weather arrives, if the timber is not removed, it will begin to rot.

"The sooner we can get them to the mill, the more value there is," he said.

Bond said each mill needs between 70 million and 80 million board-feet a year to fully operate. He said no layoffs are planned at the Tuolumne County mills.

"We will do all we can to keep the mills running," he said.

Contact Mike Morris at mmorris@uniondemocrat.com or 588-4537.