Scientists Dispute Claim That Too Little Logging Hurts Some Wildlife
12/21/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Scientists dispute claim that too little logging hurts some
wildlife
Source: The Associated Press
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 21, 1999
Byline: David Pace
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A group of university scientists from the
Southeast is challenging claims by wildlife conservation advocates
that too little logging in national forests may be hurting some
dwindling wildlife species.
In an open letter to the public and the Forest Service, scientists
from Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina argue
that preserving the remaining 750,000 acres of roadless areas in the
Southern Appalachian national forests will not harm declining species
like the golden-winged warbler and the eastern towhee.
Such species, the scientists contend, "experienced unnatural
population explosions" when most eastern forests were cut earlier
this century and the decline being observed now represents simply a
return to their normal population levels as those forests recover.
The letter was dated Dec. 17 and released Monday by the Southern
Appalachian Forest Coalition. It was prompted by complaints to the
Forest Service by state wildlife officials and wildlife conservation
advocates that setting aside new wilderness areas could further harm
some wildlife species that need newly cut, young forest habitat.
The scientists argue, however, that such habitats are "found widely
throughout the region and many species that use them are common in
our suburban backyards" and in old growth forests where natural
disturbances like fire, wind and ice storms create openings.
The Forest Service is in the process of developing new management
plans for each of the national forests in the Southern Appalachians,
incorporating President Clinton's call for preservation of all
roadless areas in national forests across the nation.
State wildlife directors from Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina,
Tennessee and Virginia complained about Clinton's proposal and the
proposed new forest plans in a meeting earlier this month with
Elizabeth Estill, the Forest Service's southern regional forester.
While stopping short of blaming the decline of many songbird species
in the Southeast on a lack of logging, the wildlife officials contend
that recent reductions in timber harvests may very well be the cause.
And they argue that more wilderness areas should not be designated
until it can be determined exactly what's behind the decline.
The scientists said in their letter, however, that while there's no
evidence that too little logging is causing decline of any species,
there's abundant evidence that too much logging in national forests
is harming many wildlife species.
"The scientific data are very clear," they wrote. "Forest
fragmentation is one of the leading causes of population declines in
a long list of forest creatures, from black bears to scarlet tanagers
to trillium.
"Some of them have been demonstrated to flourish only when their
habitats are available in large, continuous tracts of unfragmented
forest," the letter said. "The development of habitat for these
mature forest species requires decades, even hundreds of years."
It was signed by C. Ronald Carroll, director of the Institute of
Ecology at the University of Georgia; David A. Etnier of the
University of Tennessee; Joseph C. Mitchell of the University of
Richmond; Matthew Rowe of Appalachian State University; John
Terborgh, co-director of the Duke University Center for Tropical
Conservation; and Gordon R. Ultschy of the University of Alabama.