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| Allegheny National Forest Endangered! | ||||
A Forest Plan Fact Sheet Wild Allegheny Rivers! The proposed Forest Plan prioritizes only 9,250 acres (less than 2% of the forest) for watershed management of Wild & Scenic River Corridors. Exceptional value streams are not given priority management, nor is the protection of biologically diverse watersheds. Watershed protections within the Forest Plan are given low priority, are often optional, and in some cases, have been blatantly weakened to prevent their enforceability. For example, the requirement that oil and gas exploration companies comply with water protection requirements of the Forest Plan is an optional “guideline”. In the past, Forest Plan “guidelines” that protected spring seeps and riparian areas were mandatory requirements. Forest Plan requirements to protect soil erosion and compaction have been either removed from the management plan, or made into optional guidelines. For example, a guideline that the federal courts recently determined the Forest Service was violating by approving clearcutting on poorly drained soils was replaced with an unenforceable provision that is now optional. Citizens wishing to see the priority of watershed management preserved within the Allegheny National Forest management plan should support the Allegheny Wild! alternative, which recognizes the high biological value of forest lands that, fall within exceptional value watersheds, wilderness trout streams, the 13% of the forest where water flows unimpounded into the biologically significant Allegheny River, and exceptional biodiversity watersheds such as Millstone Creek. Wild Allegheny Forests! Under the proposed Forest Plan, the primary focus of new Wilderness comes from the direct reallocation of National Recreation Areas. This shell game means that only 5,000 acres of new Wilderness would be currently unprotected forest habitat. The emphasis of the proposed Forest Plan remains industrial extraction. Under the proposed plan, only 23,075 acres would be considered Wilderness (or Wilderness Study Areas), while only 20,598 acres would fall under other Special Areas designations (a 30% decrease from the existing plan). Meanwhile, 290,205 acres are dedicated primarily to even-aged clearcut logging techniques. In fact, according to the proposed plan, the US Forest Service expects to log 61,200 acres using even-aged logging in the next ten years alone. Support the Allegheny Wild! alternative, which would adopt 50,000 acres of new Wilderness!
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The proposed Allegheny National Forest management plan lacks balance. Over 90% of the forest is open to oil and gas drilling, and management direction (as noted in the figure), is overwhelmingly dominated by clearcut logging techniques. Even the “old growth management” areas would be subjected to nearly 8,000 acres of logging under the proposed plan.
This imbalance carries over to recreation where 97,745 acres are committed to motorized uses such as ATVs, but non-motorized uses ranging from camping to bicycling to horse-back riding to hunting are emphasized on only 59,800 acres.
In contrast, as shown in the above figure, the Allegheny Wild! alternative calls for a far more balanced distribution of forest uses. Even with an end to commercial logging, 92,000 acres of private timber industry lands within the Allegheny National Forest Proclamation boundary would be prioritized for logging.
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Oil & Gas Drilling
The Allegheny National Forest is host to more than 8,000 active oil & gas wells. This is more oil and gas wells than on the other 154 national forests combined.
Under the proposed Forest Plan, an additional 7,500 wells would be drilled, requiring the clearing of 10,000 acres of forest and the construction of 1,6000 miles of roads. Nevertheless, the US Forest Service has determined that oil & gas drilling is not a significant issue.
The US Forest Service does adopt new standards and guidelines for oil and gas drilling. However, overall, the mandatory standards emphasize allowing oil companies to drill and even codify subsidies provided to oil exploration corporations.
Wildlife
The proposed Forest Plan would negatively impact species of concern including the Northern Goshawk, timber rattlesnake, and Indiana bat. This is because the Forest Service does not follow the advice from scientists in managing for these wildlife populations.
The proposed Forest Plan fails to adopt meaningful goals and objectives for federally listed Threatened and Endangered Species. Using overbroad criteria, the Forest Service admits that only 30% of the forest would provide habitat for the endangered Indiana bat. The reality is much worse.
Standards that previously mandated old growth habitat retention across management areas have been removed or made optional.
Recreation
The Forest Service decided before opening public comment on the forest plan, that motorized ATV riding would be the recreation priority. As a result, goals for 100 new ATV trail miles are included in the Forest Plan, but no such goals are listed for hikers, bicyclists, or cross-country skiers.
Citizens should watch for US Forest attempts to shoehorn a resort proposal into the management plan after the plan is approved.
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