Logging to be allowed in 2 biggest U.S. forests

Miami Herald ^ | June 9, 2003 | SETH BORENSTEIN

[fightinJAG]

Logging to be allowed in 2 biggest U.S. forests By SETH BORENSTEIN Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Logging soon will be allowed in previously untouched and off-limits parts of America's two biggest national forests and perhaps in other "roadless" national forests, the Bush administration announced Monday.

The Department of Agriculture announced plans to loosen a rule that has kept logging out of 58.5 million acres of "roadless" national forests. The department will permit major exceptions to the rule, which was one of the last environmental initiatives from the Clinton administration. The change will expose more than one-fourth of the nation's untouched forests, maybe more, to logging once it takes effect later this year.

The Bush administration will remove blanket protection from timber operations from the 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska and the 5.4-million-acre Chugach National Forest in Alaska's Prince William Sound. They are the two biggest national forests in the nation.

The modified rule barring logging in roadless forests will apply only to 43 million acres of untouched forests in the Lower 48 states; Hawaii has no roadless forests. The new terms were announced by Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey, a former top timber-industry lobbyist.

In states where the modified rule against logging will remain in effect, governors can ask the federal government to open parts of their roadless forests to timber-cutting if certain criteria exist. States can ask to waive the logging ban if that would protect human safety, reduce fuel for wildfires, "provide reasonable access to private property or privately owned facilities" or correct technical mistakes in areas that do have roads.

Rey said that although he had talked with some governors about the change in the rule, he had no idea how many states would ask to opt out. But Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and North Dakota - which together have 16.8 million acres of roadless forests - already had sued to stop the logging ban.

Environmentalists fumed at Rey's announcement.

"We think it's outrageous, yet another gift from the Bush administration to the timber industry," said Tiernan Sittenfeld, a conservation advocate at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

Timber industry officials were pleased.

"We think overall this is going to meet everyone's goal of solving the forest health crisis," said John Mechem, a spokesman for the American Forest & Paper Association, the national trade association of the forest, pulp, paper, paperboard and wood-products industry, in which Rey used to work.

The biggest impact from the rule change will be in the Tongass, which has been the center of pitched battles for years over forest-use issues. Much of the Tongass is untouched; at least 500,000 acres already have active logging.

The rule change will allow two to three timber mills in southeast Alaska that had closed to reopen, creating about 1,200 jobs, Rey said. He contended that the modified rule still will protect about 95 percent of Tongass' roadless areas from logging.

Rey said separate management plans would be drafted for both Alaskan forests and the Tongass plan probably would open up a "fair amount" of 300,000 acres of roadless land to logging.

Separately, an Alaska-based environmental coalition has revealed Forest Service documents proposing to cut 870 million board feet of trees in now-roadless Tongass areas over the next 10 years. Rey said Monday that "much of that volume" would be cut.

The Tongass "is a mostly intact temperate rainforest," said Mike Francis, the director of the national forest program for The Wilderness Society. "It is a gem, and what he's doing is wanting to throw it open for continued - and in the case of Alaska, heavily subsidized - logging."

Responding to such critics, Rey said "95 percent of the loaf is insufficient to satisfy some of the people who want more."

(Knight Ridder correspondent Tish Wells contributed to this report.)

[b4its2late]

Good. Cut down on some fires but it'll drive those nutbags up into the trees again and it'll take a month of Sundays to get them out of the tree tops....

[cmsgop]

It's a good start!

[Cathryn Crawford]

What do you think of this?

[b4its2late]

Freep mail me where you're articles are posted again. I bookmarked it at work, but since I'm not there right now, I'd like to bookmark them at home. Thanks.

[Notforprophet]

Nice pic. Real nice. :^}

NFP

[b4its2late]

LOL! It does generate a few laughs....

[CPT Clay]

We're winning bump!!!!

[b4its2late]

Got it. Thanks.

[glock rocks]

But Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and North Dakota - which together have 16.8 million acres of roadless forests - already had sued to stop the logging ban.

we've been fighting this crap for years. there are 3,000,000 beetle killed trees over 120,000 acres in central Utah, and they are just sitting, waiting, during this 5th year of drought, to burst into flame.

and we're heading into fire season again...

[fightinJAG]

Scary.

[AlextheWise1]

... anyone know what caused the maine north woods to be filled with logging roads?....


environmetal regulations banning river drives...

[noutopia]

Cant put out a fire if you dont have logging roads to get to it. Bought damn time !!

[noutopia]

Logging roads also lead you into the best camping areas you can imagine.

[GladesGuru]

The only time I buy/read the Miami Herald is when I am going to have a BBQ and am out of fat lighter pine for kindling. Even then, too much of the Herald is coated ad sections which make as poor a kindling as the paper is poor reading.

The Herald is up to its usual sniveling and whining about alledged "environmental atrocities" of some non-Liberal - in this case it is the Bush Administration's attempt to bring back a bit of historic management to government lands.

When we are faced with catastrophic fire events due to fuel load accumulations directly attributable to the "natural fire" myth of GangGreen, one must ask why the Herald isn't asking for replacement of historic anthropogenic fire/fire management on all government lands?

What of the past fire events and their sequelae does the Herald writer not understand?

When such questions are asked in Herald articles, I will again be a subscriber. Until then, FR, WorldNetDaily.com NewsMax.com have replaced the Herald as my daily morning news sources.

Note to Herald management: Much of America is also abandoning newprint - please shape up before you finish the destruction of a once great cultural resource.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Off topic, but:

Much of America is also abandoning newprint - please shape up before you finish the destruction of a once great cultural resource.

...is a point I've been trying to make for a long time. Newspapers are dying thanks to gross mismanagement. No one else seems to notice or care.

[MARTIAL MONK]

Oh No. I'm going to run right out and give my tree an extra hug. Next week it may be Charmin. Or the New York Times. This is treeicide.

[noutopia]

Lets hope it is Charmin.

[pawdoggie]

"Good. Cut down on some fires but it'll drive those nutbags up into the trees again and it'll take a month of Sundays to get them out of the tree tops...." You're right, and if they're up in the trees they can march in D.C. or New York; or vote, for that matter.

[dixiechick2000]

Linking this one here. I like yours better.;o)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/926072/posts?page=1

What do you think?