After a Century of Logging, National Forests Must Be Protected
12/23/99
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Title: We must protect national forests
Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press commentary
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 23, 1999
Byline: Lois Norrgard
For most of this century, our public lands, the national forests,
have been heavily logged, mined and exploited by commercial
interests. Since being established, more than half of the national
forests have been lost to these activities. Less than 20 percent of
our national forests are protected permanently. These lands were not
a ``gift,'' but bought with taxes. We own them, and we should speak
up for their protection.
President Clinton has taken a giant step toward cementing a
conservation legacy by launching a plan to permanently protect wild,
``roadless'' areas in America's national forests from environmentally
destructive activities. These should be places to go for
rejuvenation, habitat for biological diversity and forest health,
watersheds for clean drinking water, and for recreational hiking,
biking, picnicking, camping, hunting, fishing and watching wildlife.
The first ``Forest Reserves'' were designated in 1891, in response to
the knowledge that devastation was caused by commercial extraction.
If these beautiful national treasures, our forests, weren't
protected, they would be lost forever. The U.S. Forest Service now
manages 192 million acres of public forest lands. Unfortunately, the
primary focus has shifted from protecting these lands to ``managing''
resource extraction.
Our forests are crisscrossed by 380,000 miles of official roads --
more that eight times the U.S. interstate highway system; and 60,000
miles of roadway used by off-road vehicles and temporary logging
projects. The present maintenance backlog is approximately $8.4
billion, which means existing roads are in drastic need of attention
to stop impacts and provide safety for users. There is no logic in
new roads.
Logging roads are generally dirt, carved by bulldozers through
wilderness; they wreak havoc on ecosystems. They fragment habitat,
and provide openings for the introduction of exotic pests, pathogens
and plants. They often become deeply eroded, causing landslides,
filling streams with sediment and increasing toxic pollution from
runoff. Extractive activities have profound impact by clearing the
landscape and render useless the forest's habitat and recreational
values.
With over half our forests now being managed for products and higher
impact recreation, we must reassess what other goals our ``forest
reserves'' were originally trying to achieve.
Clinton's proposal could mean protection from high-impact uses for up
to 60 million acres. Minnesota has approximately 70,000 acres between
the Superior and Chippewa forests that are considered ``roadless.''
Not since Teddy Roosevelt's era has America seen such a bold plan for
preserving our wild lands. Yet the proposal will not hurt our
nation's timber supply. Only 5 percent of our timber is from national
forests (95 percent from private lands) and less than 5 percent of
that is being cut in roadless areas. ``We can easily adjust our
federal timber program to replace 5 percent of 5 percent . . .,''
Clinton said when announcing the proposed policy, ``but we can never
replace what we might destroy . . . ''
Protecting roadless areas will not harm forest health. They are the
healthiest parts of the national forests. They are healthy because
they have experienced the least amount of disruption to their
ecosystem, and they have been less affected by a century of fire
suppression, so they are less vulnerable to fire risk. These areas
exist in essentially natural states, they don't need ``restoration.''
Only 4 percent of America's ancient forests remain, two-thirds of
these are within national forests. Roughly 80 percent of the nation's
fresh-water sources originate in national forests. They provide homes
to one-quarter of America's endangered species, including the grizzly
ear, wolf and salmon. Most importantly, we have a responsibility to
protect these special places as a legacy for future generations.
The Forest Service wants the public to generate ideas for protection.
We must ensure there are no exemptions, all national forests,
including Tongass National Forest in Alaska, should be included.
Logging, mining and environmentally damaging uses should be
prohibited, along with road building. All inventoried roadless areas
1,000 acres or larger should be protected immediately, but there
should also be interim protection for any non-inventoried area 1,000
acres or lager until inventories can be completed.
Everyone who cares about our national forests, wildlife habitat,
clean water and low-impact recreation should contact their
representatives in Washington.
Norrgard (e-mail: Lnorr@uswest.net )is Upper Midwest organizer for
American Lands. Contact her by phone at (612) 881-7282.