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September 25, 2003

Forest Service Watch #1

Once every week we'll round up what we know about what the Forest Service is up to. Here is our first issue of Forest Service Watch:

News Releases
• Forest Service roads are opened for the big game hunting season. Every fall a number of roads are opened to allow deeper access into the Allegheny National Forest to hunters. Download the pdf document here.

• The Forest Service opened forest motor bike trails just in time for Hurricane Isabel on September 14. There is no notice that they closed trails for the hurricane. So we don't know if they did or didn't. Download the pdf document here.

Forest Planning
• This is major. The Forest Service has posted two planning documents for recreation management and interpretive management. On their face there are some apparent legal issues here as neither appears on their face to have been developed consistent with requirements of planning laws. I will research this over the weekend and provide an update sometime next week. Both large pdf documents available here.

To proceed on this point, I haven't taken even a glance at the substance of these reports which would unlikely impact their legality. However, before I do I should point out that they appear to be planning documents which are supposed to be prepared as the result of very specific public involvement and environmental analysis processes. This fact doesn't change even if these documents are good in substance. Typically, documents that don't follow the legally mandated processes, are in my opinion, of a lesser quality and overtly biased documents. The exception are empirical review documents which I don't think these documents are.

• Nothing new on the next round of forest planning meetings. Keep your eyes posted.

Timber Sales
• Unfortunately our appeal of the windthrow salvage was denied. No big surprise here. The appeals process while important is simply silly because it goes before the same agency that has been pushing the logging in the first place. timber bids have started to come in already, particularly for the Marienville area.

• The Forest Service has timber data up on their website through 2002. Notice the increase in timber awarded. This reflects East Side I think. Fortunately, the timber being cut is down a little from 2001. Lets hope it stays that way.

• Again, this is old but the FS sent out a notice last month delaying the bid dates on ten East Side contracts until November. This is something like the sixth delay on these sales. Something good for a change. Here are the timber bids we've received lately:

The FR 160J Removal Sale - a 30 acre clearcut. Not sure what project this is from. Bid date is October 14.
The Lot 695, 719 Sale - Catchy title huh? Sadly these are three clearcuts planned at Minister Creek. This includes the one along the North Country Trail.Bid date is October 16.
The FR 540 Sale - everything is named after land units and forest roads now. This is two clearcuts totalling 76 acres near the North Country Trail at Coon Creek. Bid date is October 22.
The Warrant 5104, 2992, 2995, 2916 Sale - This is a Windthrow Salvage Sale out by Job Corps Road north of Beaver Meadows. Bid date is October 27.
The Warrant 3179 Sale - This is a Windthrow Salvage Sale out by Greely Farm in an East Side area. This area is getting punished hard which really sucks as it is an area I know well. Bid date is October 20.
The Bald Hill Sale - two clearcuts totalling 58 acres in the Bald Hill Run area.Bid date is October 7.

Website Improvements
• This isn't new news, BUT a very limited amount of GIS data is available on the FS website. Someday we'll update folks on the GIS hoax that the Forest Service has been transpiring on the public.

Posted by jkleissler at September 25, 2003 06:14 PM

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