WAFC Forest Focus: Pelican Butte Pulled, Too Many Trees
11/25/97
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Headline: WAFC Forest Focus: Pelican Butte Pulled, Too Many Trees
Source: Western Ancient Forest Campaign
Date: 11/25/97
PELICAN BUTTE PULLED: The Winema NF in Oregon has withdrawn
plans for "controversial" timber sales on Pelican Butte, the Portland
Oregonian reports. In October, 20 groups appealed the sales, arguing that the
logging of 15 mmbf would threaten critical bald eagle habitat and disqualify
the area for wilderness. A spokesman for the Forest Service said the agency
might drop the Cold Springs-Switchback Timber Sales completely, "but it is
more likely" that the Winema would "resubmit a modified plan based on
objections raised in the appeal by environmentalists," the Oregonian says.
"TOO MANY TREES": Legislation to end commercial logging on the
National Forests is "common sense" and ending logging subsidies "should be a
high priority for a free-market economy," writes Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA) in an
op-ed in the New York Times. "Less than 4% of the country's wood products
come from public lands, yet Federal subsidies for this logging are inexcusably
large," Leach wrote in support of the legislation he has authored with Rep.
Cynthia McKinney (D-GA). "If we are going to exhort other countries to
preserve their forests, we ought to act to save our own," Leach says.
NON-FEDERAL FOCUS: The National Research Council has released a
report on non-federal forests responding to provisions in the 1990 Farm Bill,
says the National Association of State Foresters. "The study is positive
because it draws attention to the need for significantly greater private and
public investments in the nation's non-Federal forests," says NASF President
and Missouri State Forester Marvin Brown. Copies of the report are available
from the NRC at (202)334-2138.
WILDERNESS SELL-OUT?: The final EIS for motorized access to the
Kalmiopsis Wilderness on the Siskiyou NF in Oregon will increase the risk of
losses of Port Orford cedar to a non-native pathogen, says a release from The
Siskiyou Project and Wilderness Watch. "The Forest Service is playing
Russian roulette with the Kalmiopsis," says Barbara Ullian of The Siskiyou
Project. "Each time someone drives in and out of the Wilderness it's like
pulling the trigger on a partially loaded gun. Once the root disease is
introduced into uninfected areas, the damage is done and the effects are
irreparable and irreversible."
"WHITTLING DIXIE": The threat of chipmills to the forests of the
Southern U.S. is highlighted in the November/December issue of Audubon
magazine. Documenting the impacts of "a new kind of forestry" on the South,
the article by Jon Luoma and photographs by Cameron Davidson reports that
140 chipmills in the region are being fed by the clearcutting of about 1.2
million acres of forest annually.
Steve Holmer
Campaign Coordinator
Western Ancient Forest Campaign
1025 Vermont Ave. NW 3rd Floor
Washington, D.C. 20005
202/879-3188
202/879-3189 fax
wafcdc@igc.org