*******************************
WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Lawless
Logging Commences in USA, in White River National Forest
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
October
9, 1995
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE
Recently
enacted USA forest legislation, which allows increased
timber
sales defined as "salvage" to occur without the benefit of
many
environmental laws' application, has begun to lead to
dramatically
increased industrial harvesting on public lands.
Ancient
Forest Rescue reports in econet's western.lands conference
that
documents released by the White River National Forest in
Colorado
indicate that "some of the state's most controversial
timber
sales will proceed in the next two years with virtually no
public
input and no accountability."
Timber sales of over 9
million
board feet will proceed exempt "from all environmental
laws,
including laws that protect wetlands, endangered species and
citizen
input."
The US
government has forsaken its environmental leadership in the
world. US governmental leaders should be lobbied as
hard, or
harder,
as leaders in developing countries; which are incessantly
hammered
upon to foresake forest development on the basis of
biodiversity
and ecosystem considerations.
Meanwhile, official
forest
policy in the US continues to be to mop up remaining
wilderness. Shame on America.
g.b.
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TEXT STARTS HERE:
/*
Written 8:43 PM Oct
5, 1995 by dyurman in western.lands */
/*
---------- "Lawless Logging in White River NF" ---------- */
TOPIC:
Lawless Logging in White River NF
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October
5, 1995
CONTACT: Dan McNulty, Ancient Forest Rescue -
303/492-6870 Rocky
Smith,
Colorado Environmental Coalition - 303/837-8704 Ted
Zukoski,
Land & Water Fund - 303/444-1188
* WHITE
RIVER NATIONAL FOREST PLANS LAWLESS LOGGING CAMPAIGN *
-- Conservationists Assail Reps. McInnis,
Allard --
-- Sen. Campbell for Ending Public
Accountability --
Documents
released by the White River National Forest yesterday
show
that some of the state's most controversial timber sales will
proceed
in the next two years with virtually no public input and
no
accountability. The documents detail
which timber sales will
be
defined as "salvage" under a law passed by Congress this
summer. The law exempts such sales from all
environmental laws,
including
laws that protect wetlands, endangered species and
citizen
input.
The
lawless logging provision, which Congressman Scott McInnis,
Congressman
and Senate candidate Wayne Allard, and Senator Ben
Nighthorse
Campbell voted to enact and which became law July 27,
gives
bureaucrats the power to approve sales, even when local
residents
show the sales violate laws.
The
documents show that the White River National Forest will log
31
million board feet of timber in the next two years, a rate
almost
twice as high as that before passage of the "salvage"
provision. More than half of the volume will come from
sales
exempt
from all environmental laws. In 1995,
the White River
logged
only 9 million board feet of timber.
The
first sale in Colorado exempt from all environmental laws --
the Pot
Hole timber sale on top of Hardscrabble Mountain south of
Eagle
-- was approved this week by the Forest Service.
"This
lawless logging is unprecedented," said Rocky Smith, Forest
Ecology
Coordinator for the Colorado Environmental Coalition
(CEC). "Many of these sales will degrade
natural values and
severely
conflict with human recreation, and citizens will be
powerless
to stop them."
The
Forest Service has targeted the Flat Tops ecosystem for 6
lawless
sales, totaling approximately 16 million board feet,
within
the next two years. Among these sales
is the controversial
South
Wagonwheel sale, which conservation groups, including CEC,
had
appealed. The Forest Service withdrew
the sale only a month
ago
after admitting that it had violated environmental laws in
preparing
the sale. Under the "salvage"
provision, the White
River
National Forest will nearly double the size of the sale,
from 4
million to 7 million board feet.
Other
sales exempt from all environmental laws in the Flat Tops
include:
*
South Quartzite - south of Flat Tops Wilderness - 4 million
board feet;
*
Trappers - surrounded by Flat Tops Wilderness - 200 acres,
about 2 million bd ft;
*
Deer Park/Derby Mesa - just east of Flat Tops Wilderness - 1
million bd feet;
*
Strata - just south of Flat Tops Wilderness - 150 acres,
about 1.5 million bd ft;
*
White Owl - just south of Flat Tops Wilderness - 500,000 bd
ft.
Smith
estimated that in order to remove the millions of board feet
from
the southern Flat Tops area over the next two years will
require
more than 2,300 trips by logging trucks over the Coffee
Pot
Road, a frequently used recreation access to the Flat Tops.
"That's
60 trucks a day during the snow-free season, or a loaded
logging
truck on average of once every 20 minutes, barrelling down
that
narrow road," Smith estimated.
"It will be a nightmare for
recreational
users."
"The
South Wagonwheel timber sale is a perfect illustration of how
the
public's ability to appeal timber sales stops illegal Forest
Service
actions," said Dan McNulty of Ancient Forest Rescue, one
of the
groups that appeal the South Wagonwheel sale.
"We held the
Service's
feet to the fire and they admitted that they had
violated
laws that protect rare species like lynx and wolverine.
Scott
McInnis and his cronies in Congress have taken away the
public's
power, so now an even worse sale will go through, even if
it
violates every environmental law in the book."
Copies
of the Forest Service documents are available on request
from
Ted Zukoski of the Land and Water Fund.
(landwater@igc.apc.org).
###
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