KETCHIKAN -- Three environmental groups have appealed a U.S. Forest Service decision to log 73 million board feet of timber on Prince of Wales Island.

Audubon Alaska, the Alaska Wilderness League and the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council want the amount reduced by about half. The Logjam sale includes construction of five miles of Forest Service system roads and an additional 22 miles of temporary roads, an amount the groups also want reduced.

"We know the local mills need this wood and we also know that we want to balance it with conservation," said Lindsay Ketchel, executive director of the conservation council.

Tongass Forest Supervisor Forrest Cole released the decision in June. Ray Massey, a Forest Service spokesman, said Regional Forester Denny Bschor has until Sept. 24 to rule on the appeals.

Ketchel said the area is a key watershed for salmon and steelhead trout, and a critical old-growth habitat for sustaining deer and other wildlife.

Owen Graham, executive director of the Alaska Forest Association, said Viking Lumber is the closest mill to the Logjam sale and the timber could help keep it open. "The Viking mill doesn't have enough wood to get through the next logging season," Graham said.

Graham said he presented a compromise to the environmental groups, one that would have deferred half the volume of the timber sale. Under the compromise, he said, the timber industry and environmental groups would look to find acceptable places to log and those place would be swapped out for the objectionable portions of the Logjam sale.

"They never responded to my proposal and the next thing I know is they filed appeals," Graham said.

Ketchel said she'd like hear more about Graham's idea but an appeal had to be filed by Monday's deadline to continue discussions.