U.S. National Forests Threatened by Logging and Recreation

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Archives

http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest Conservation

12/23/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

One would imagine that the United States would be most able to manage

its forests. This is not the case, as roadless areas and old growth

continue to be logged, and the general condition of the National

Forest estate continues to decline. A new comprehensive report

highlights threats to the US's National Forests. It states that

"perverse incentives influence local Forest Service decision makers to

identify logging as the solution to every problem."

g.b.

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Title: Logging, Recreation Called Biggest Threats to National

Forests

Source: Environment News Service, http://www.ens.lycos.com/

Date: December 21, 1999

Byline: Cat Lazaroff

WASHINGTON, DC, December 21, 1999 (ENS) - A comprehensive new report

by a coalition of environmental groups finds that environmentally

insensitive timber sales threaten a majority of America's national

forests. The first ever "National Forest Yearbook," released today by

the American Lands Alliance, catalogues dozens of current and pending

threats to the nation's 154 national forests.

INSET: The Yearbook says the Santa Fe National Forest has been

abused by high grade logging practices, fire suppression and

destructive grazing practices.

A coalition of more than one hundred forest and grassland

conservation activists and organizations collaborated to produce the

"National Forest Yearbook 1999." The study details present and future

projects and policies that could damage the forests' natural

resources, and urges changes in U.S. Forest Service (USFS) practices

to address these threats.

"The Yearbook presents a picture of an enormously valuable National

Forest System that provides clean lakes and rivers, productive

grasslands and scenic mountains, and abundant fish and wildlife,"

said Randi Spivak, president of the American Lands Alliance. "But

this Yearbook also documents clearly how these assets are at risk."

"Logging in old growth and roadless areas, ORVs out of control, lack

of attention to wildlife needs, and countless other environmental

abuses are degrading our national forests," Spivak continued. "This

Yearbook is not a description of sins from the agency's dark past,

but rather a description of current projects, moving forward right

now in specific national forests, at the initiative of local Forest

Service land managers or with their permission."

INSET: Clearcuts are bleeding sediment into coho spawning grounds in

Siskiyou National Forest in Oregon, killing young fish.

Timber sales approved without sufficient attention to environmental

issues were found to be the most pervasive threat to national

forests. Many timber sales are justified in the name of ecological

"restoration," wildlife protection, or "forest health," the report

notes. In some cases, the sales come about because land managers seek

revenue for more environmentally friendly projects. A number of laws

provide incentives for logging by distributing revenue from timber

sale receipts.

"We give [U.S. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck] and many others in

the agency great credit for trying to steer the ship the right

direction," said Spivak. "But no one realizes better than Chief

Dombeck how many perverse incentives influence local Forest Service

decision makers to identify logging as the solution to every

problem."

Close on the heels of logging as a threat to the National Forests is

recreation. The yearbook documents the growing threat that off road

vehicles, ski resort expansions and privatization pose to the

national forests, as well as the problems that result simply from

budgets that are inadequate to maintain facilities for reasonable and

appropriate recreational use.

The issue of budgets is a recurrent theme in the Yearbook's entries.

The report finds that the USFS budget often starves conservation

programs while promoting a timber sale program that subsidizes

logging which might otherwise not occur.

INSET: The Bankhead National Forest in Alabama faces pressure from

logging and conversion of natural forests into pine plantations.

"As the administration prepares its FY 2001 budget, we urge that

subsidies for harmful timber sales be redirected to beneficial

restoration programs," said Brian Vincent, American Lands' California

organizer. "Why must lynx habitat, trout streams, old growth forests,

and rare plants be at risk from logging on the national forests that

we the public own?"

The Yearbook makes a case against the proposed National Forest

Management Act (NFMA) regulations now pending that would increase

discretion by USFS land managers and remove provisions for citizen

enforcement.

"Instead of more discretion for land managers, we need tougher

regulations to protect the national forests," said Steve Holmer,

campaign coordinator for American Lands. "Every page of the Yearbook

is replete with examples where existing discretion is being abused by

local timber sale planners, line officers, and other decision

makers."

The Yearbook describes many instances where bad projects have been

altered, postponed, or dropped after citizens used their rights of

administrative and legal appeal under the current NFMA regulations to

insure that however weak existing standards are, they are nonetheless

observed.

"The Yearbook makes clear that the key to better national forest

management is not to remove provisions for enforcing agency

accountability, but rather to shift the focus (and resources) of the

agency to landscape restoration rather than commodity production,"

said Holmer. "Strong NFMA regulations are needed to insure that

Forest Plans address such issues as suitability of lands for grazing,

species viability, the impact of invasive species, controls on ORVs,

Wilderness recommendations and others."

INSET: The Mt. Hoffman Roadless Area of the Modoc National Forest in

California is threatened by two proposed geothermal plants that would

be built within a few miles of Medicine Lake.

Not all the news is bad, the coalition notes. Several policy

initiatives now pending will address some of the threats outlined in

the Yearbook. On October 13, 1999, President Clinton ordered the USFS

to develop a rule to ban new road construction in thousands of acres

of roadless National Forest lands. The coalition hopes this policy

will provide clear direction to National Forests for prioritizing

road removal based on wildlife, clean water, and other environmental

needs, and insure that standards are met for proper work.

Important decisions are also pending on the Clinton administration's

"ecosystem management" plans for the national forests in the Pacific

Northwest, the Northwest Forest Plan and the Interior Columbia Basin

Ecosystem Management Plan. A Supplemental Environmental Impact

Statement is now under consideration on revisions to the "survey and

manage" requirements under the Northwest Forest Plan, affecting 17

National Forests in northern California, Oregon, and Washington State

west of the Cascades.

The report notes that environmental groups have taken the initiative

to file a petition with the USFS to request administrative rule-

making for more effective regulation of off road vehicles. The

Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads, The Wilderness Society, and 90

other groups filed the petition December 9, seeking new USFS rules to

prohibit cross country travel in National Forests by motorized

vehicles, and insure that ORV routes are designated only where the

agency can demonstrate that adverse environmental impacts will not

occur.

INSET: The Yearbook says "enlightened management" is helping to

restore clearcut areas in Oregon's Siuslaw National Forest.

The Yearbook includes contact information for local forest activists

and organizations working to protect each National Forest. "There is

a remarkable movement in this country to protect our national

forests," said Holmer. "The Yearbook is full of stories of local

citizens who take action and make a difference."

"This Yearbook is our first comprehensive report on all of the units

in the National Forest System," said Spivak. "The next Yearbook, we

hope, will demonstrate significant progress in addressing many of the

current threats to these valuable public lands."

The National Forest Yearbook 1999 is available by calling

202-547-9400 or online at:

http://www.americanlands.org/forestweb/yearbook.htm

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