When a tree falls in the forest, it can make a lot of noise regardless of who’s around to hear it – especially when zoning codes are called into question post harvest.

That’s the story behind a 110-acre clear cut near the city of Mosier that is causing some rumblings among citizens who believe the land was logged illegally. But whether those complaints are accurate is open for debate and interpretations vary widely.

“What we have here is a total breakdown of protecting public resources in a national scenic area,” said Michael Lang, director of the advocacy organization Friends of the Columbia River Gorge. “The commission staff reversed policy and violated its own laws … in allowing this clear cut to go forward.”

But the company in question, SDS Lumber, maintains it had every right to harvest the land, and SDS president Jason Spadaro thinks Friends of the Gorge is trying to drum up controversy unjustly.

“The Friends of the Gorge would like to believe that forest harvest is prohibited but to prohibit timber harvest would be in direct contradiction to what the (National Scenic Area Act) actually says,” Spadaro said.

Meanwhile, the Columbia River Gorge Commission, the local regional governing body, is trying to figure out how to settle the controversy and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The situation began at the end of 2011, when the Bureau of Indian Affairs coordinated with Bengin, Wash.-based SDS to access approximately 80 acres of tribal land via a logging road owned by SDS. Concurrently, SDS took the opportunity to log an adjacent 30 acres that had been destroyed by wildfire in 2009. The BIA’s land was also damaged in that fire.

SDS’s land is regulated by the National Scenic Area Act, which Congress passed in 1986 to protect the natural and cultural resources of the gorge. The act heavily restricts logging on lands called Special Management Areas, but protects logging in General Management Areas. SDS’s 30 acres was zoned as General Management Area.

But then in 1991, the Columbia River Gorge Commission wrote a management plan that zoned SDS’s land as GMA “open space.” The designation did not list logging as an allowed or reviewable activity, and Friends of the Gorge argues that means it is prohibited.

Lang claims the BIA also failed to follow federal obligations and notify the public of its intentions. While the BIA is exempt from the National Scenic Area Act, he said the agency is still required to follow federal regulations such as the National Environmental Policy Act. That involves a period of detailed review and public comment.

None of that happened, Lang said. He thinks the gorge commission is limiting dialogue on the subject.

“Truly they seem more interested in sticking their heads in the ground and hoping it goes away,” he said.

Spadaro takes issue with those comments. He said the objective of the scenic act was not only preservation, but also economic development.

“The point is there has been past forestry on those lands and we will replant our lands and intend to conduct forestry on it in the future,” Spadaro said. “Because it’s GMA lands we’re allowed to do that.”

As a company, SDS’s roots date back to 1946 and today spread out to some 70,000 acres of forest. The company employs about 300 people, which is only slightly smaller than the population of Mosier at 435 people.

Spadaro said his company’s hand was forced somewhat when the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakima Nation approached him for use of SDS’s road. As a good neighbor, Spadaro wanted to accommodate their request.

But the operation also made sense from a business perspective. Loggers only have about three years to salvage timber following a forest fire before it becomes useless as a resource for building materials and after the 2009 fire, that clock was ticking.

For local residents, the 110-acre bald spot on the hill is a black eye.

Kathleen Fitzpatrick, a board member for Mosier’s Main Street organization and city council member, is worried the eyesore will damage the city’s outdoor tourism-based economy. The clear cut overlooks a section of the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail – a hiking and biking pedestrian corridor between Hood River and Mosier that has been a big draw for the city since it opened in 2010.

“We’re deeply concerned and feeling a little unsettled about the future,” she said. “When something where you live has been vandalized, you worry that the site that’s been vandalized will now attract more crime and more abuse in that area.”

Logging is not, however, a crime when it’s done on land zoned for that purpose and Chet Behling, stewardship forester for the Oregon Department of Forestry, said the conflict seems to be arising from contradicting laws between the scenic area act and the gorge commission’s management plan.

“It’s based on very complex language that attorneys and lawyers can’t even agree on,” he said.

Fitzpatrick further believes the gorge commission violated the city’s trust by approving the clear cut without involving the public. But Darren Nichols, the gorge commission’s executive director, said the commission was not aware of the clear cut before it began. By the time it did become aware of the situation, there was little that could be done to change its course. He did agree, though, that a lot of communication fell through the cracks in this instance and said the situation would not happen again.

But the question of which jurisdiction has authority, federal or regional, still remains, and Nichols said commission staff is currently conducting a report with ODF, the Washington Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Forest Service. The Oregon and Washington attorneys general also have been involved in the evaluation because the gorge commission’s jurisdiction spans both states.

“The management plan does not permit logging, but the question is whether the gorge commission has the authority to implement that management plan when it appears that it may conflict with the (National Scenic Area Act) itself,” he said.

As for the clear cut, Spadaro said the BIA has already started replanting the land it logged and SDS will begin replanting its land next spring. Behling said that would likely even result in the land returning to forest quicker than if SDS had left it alone.

Spadaro said it’s all just part of the plan.

“The bottom line is that forest harvest has been part of this area for over a century and will continue to be part of this area and that was allowed by congress when they created the act and will continue to be allowed,” he said. “It will green up before you know it – it’s just part of the cycle.”