'Big victory for forests' will actually prove harmful
Copyright 2000 The Atlanta Constitution
December 27, 2000
LIVE AND LET live is not a policy that will preserve our national forests in modern times. Now that the U.S. Forest Service has bowed to pressure from litigious activists, Georgia can expect to find that out the hard way.
The eight groups that filed suit are declaring it a "big victory for forests across the South" after the Forest Service this month effectively ended logging in Georgia's Chattahoochee National Forest, and halted projects in three of six tracts in the Oconee National Forest. Too, dozens of projects were halted in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas. The lawsuit, covering projects in 31 national forests in the Southern region, alleges that the Forest Service "continued to allow logging that destroys sensitive animal habitat."
The facts dispute the environmentalists' misguided belief that logging damages our national forests. Less than half of 1 percent of the Chattahoochee-Oconee is harvested for timber annually, and it accounts for just 3 percent of the state's timber harvest.
But here's what the environmental zealotry is halting in Georgia:
A source of income for 26 Georgia counties, which receive 25 percent of all national forest receipts and use it to fund schools and roads.
A timber program that in fiscal year 1997 (the most recent data) resulted in 372 jobs and nearly $ 13 million in income to local communities.
The primary source of quality hardwood timber in Georgia, the Chattahoochee forest.
A cost-effective and practical alternative to prescribed burning to manage the forest environment.
The only way, aside from fire, to ensure that there is enough young forest for the species that require it. The state wildlife agencies of Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia warned the Forest Service last year: "The forest planning process is placing too much emphasis on setting aside large blocks of land into categories that eliminate wildlife habitat management practices. . . . At the same time, we do not believe that the many species that depend on early and mid-successional stages are being given sufficient consideration in your planning process. "
It used to be that lightning-sparked wildfires ensured the rejuvenation of the forest. Now we douse those. Combined with the logging halt, the result is overcrowded, old forests that encourage disease, insect infestation and deadly conflagration. By caving in to interest group arguments that the only way to ensure the success of the national forests is to leave them alone, the Forest Service has hurt the forests. Unfortunately, this irresponsible decision also ensures it could take years for the next administration to return the agency to best management practices.