The federal Forest Service auctioned off timber from a remote, burned-over section of a national forest in the first such sale since the Bush administration eased logging restrictions. A timber company paid $300,052 for the right to log 261 acres of standing dead timber that was burned in a 2002 fire in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. The timber industry and the Forest Service said logging the area would speed the regeneration of the forest, but environmental groups said leaving things to nature would produce a healthier forest. The blaze burned through roughly 500,000 acres in the Klamath Mountains of southwestern Oregon. Two bidders took part in the auction; the winner, the Silver Creek Timber Company of Merlin, went more than $64,000 over the minimum bid.