Regional Forester's Office Reverses Decision to Sell Manti-LaSal Timber
11/11/97
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Headline: Regional Forester's Office Reverses Decision to Sell Manti-LaSal
Timber
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune
Date: 11/11/97
Author: Brent Israelsen
Copyright 1997, The Salt Lake Tribune
The regional forester's office in Ogden has reversed a decision
that would have sold 22 million board feet of timber in the
Manti-LaSal National Forest.
Deputy Regional Forester Jack Troyer ordered the Manti-LaSal to
do a more in-depth analysis of a proposed ``salvage sale'' intended
to save trees from a bark-beetle epidemic.
Troyer's ruling was in response to an appeal by
environmentalists.
A full-scale environmental impact statement (EIS) is needed to
``appropriately document and disclose the effects of a project of
this magnitude,'' Troyer said.
Environmentalists on Monday praised Troyer's ruling and had
strong words for Manti-LaSal Forest Supervisor Janette Kaiser.
``She didn't think anyone was watching,'' said Amelia Jenkins,
spokeswoman for Wild Utah Forest Campaign (WUFC). ``The public should
not have to go to this extent to require [a national forest] to
follow the law.''
Kaiser could not be reached for comment.
WUFC was one of three groups that appealed Kaiser's decision in
August to sell some 22 million board feet of timber on 3,900 acres of
forest east and south of Manti. Known as the South Manti Project, the
project would produce enough timber to build about 1,570 average-size
houses.
The appellants said Kaiser's decision subverted the National
Environmental Policy Act, which requires a comprehensive
environmental impact statement for major projects affecting natural
resources.
Kaiser also reneged on an open public process that was begun in
1993 under her predecessor, said Dick Carter, former coordinator of
the now-defunct Utah Wilderness Association.
``All she was doing was shoving it to the environmentalists,''
Carter said. ``She knew better than to release a decision without
public comment.''
In 1994, then-forest Supervisor George Morris decided to conduct
an EIS for the proposed South Manti Project, which at the time would
have harvested about 12 million board feet of timber.
A year later, a Rescissions Act signed by President Clinton
contained a ``salvage rider'' that authorized emergency timber
harvesting without an EIS. In 1996, using the authority of the
salvage rider, Kaiser authorized potential logging of some 71 million
board feet of timber in the Manti-LaSal, even though the forest plan
calls for just 3.9 million per year.
That year, she approved actual sales totaling 21 million board
feet of timber. Kaiser followed that sale with an additional 22
million board-feet decision in August of this year.
Her decision was protested by WUFC, Carter and the
Tucson-Ariz.-based Southwest Center for Biological Diversity. In
addition to violating the law, Kaiser's decision would have harmed
sensitive wildlife species, watersheds and roadless areas, they said.