« May 2004 | Main | July 2004 »
June 17, 2004
Allegheny Defense Summer & Fall Events
Mark Your Calendars!!!
July 17 - Allegheny National Forest Organizer's Workshop and Field Training
The Bush Administration has made it a priority to open up our national forests to wide-spread logging and oil & gas drilling while rolling back protections under the guise of “Healthy Forests”. The Administration has focused on Pennsylvania’s Allegheny National Forest as an Eastern “poster child” in their propaganda efforts.
Click Here to sign up for the training
July 31 - Lamentation Run National Recreation Area Bike Ride
The Lamentation Run Area was once considered for Wilderness. Now, if the Forest Service has its way it will be opened to logging either in 3 years or 12 years (depending on the outcome of Forest Plan Revision). But this beautiful area can be protected today! It has been proposed as a National Recreation Area by the Allegheny Defense Project and included in federal legislation as a protected Special Area. The Lamentation Bicycle Trail is part of a forest-wide roads to trails effort led by the ADP. Join us for the first official ride on the proposed Lamentation Run Bicycle Trail.
Click Here to sign up for the bike ride
August 14&15 - Tionesta Wilderness Area Backpacking Trip
2004 marks the 40th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act. Come celebrate this legendary event in the Allegheny National Forest for a two-day backpacking trip in the proposed Tionesta Wilderness Area. The Tionesta Wilderness Area is a pro-active restoration-based Wilderness proposal designed to protect the largest tract of old growth forest remaining in Pennsylvania and restore surrounding habitat. Explore the old growth and learn about how you can make this proposed Wilderness a reality.
Click Here to sign up for the Wilderness trip
August 21 - Allegany Recreation Area Bike Ride
Join us for a ride along a proposed bicycle trail that would connect Willow Bay Campground with Allegany State Park in New York. This ridgeline ride features oustanding views of adjacent National Recreation Areas and proposed Wilderness.
Click Here to sign up for the Allegany bike ride
Week of August 23 - Allegheny National Forest Public Meetings
The Allegheny National Forest needs your support. Join the Allegheny Defense Project and support an end to logging and oil & gas drilling at US Forest Service public meetings. We need Wilderness advocates to stand up for what is right in the Alleghenies!
Click Here to sign up to attend the meetings
September 4th - 40th Anniversary Wilderness Walk
Join the Allegheny Defense Project for a Labor Day Weekend Walk for Wilderness in your area. Locations and details of walks to be announced.
Click Here to sign up for the Wilderness Walks
September 17 to 19 - Allegheny Defense Project Fall Gathering!
Join the Allegheny Defense Project for its Fall Conference in the Allegheny National Forest. Learn about issues facing the Allegheny National Forest including logging, drilling, and off-road vehicle use. Learn how you can support new Wilderness on the Allegheny and protect existing wildlife habitats from further degradation. Explore the largest old growth forest in Pennsylvania and hike the North Country National Scenic Trail. Campout will be in proposed logging area adjacent to proposed Wilderness.
Click Here to sign up to receive registration details
Click Here to sign up for any of these events
Posted by jkleissler at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2004
Forest Protection Starts Here!
Your e-connection to national forest defense.
Ancient Forest Protection Starts Here - http://weblog.greenpeace.org/stopthesales/
Medford BLM, Ore. - Greenpeace Activists locked to three-ton containers on logging road in Southern Oregon. Activists Deliver Message that "Ancient Forest Protection Starts Here".The forest in Oregon represents ancient forests on public lands throughout the United States that the Bush administration is fast tracking onto the chopping block. To date, 70 percent of all old growth forest has already been logged. Greenpeace is calling for a moratorium on commercial logging on public lands, and for increased protection and restoration efforts.
URGENT CALLS NEEDED: U.S. House of Representatives
Congress will vote this week to protect some of America's most cherished natural treasures - wildlife harbored in our national forests, the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, and Yellowstone National Park. The Interior Appropriations bill will be debated on the House floor today and amendments could be offered as early as this afternoon. Your help is urgently needed to generate calls to House Members to encourage them to vote for these three amendments to the Interior Appropriations bill.
Please call your Representative at 202-224-3121 (the Capitol Switchboard) and ask to speak to the Staff that works on environmental issues. Tell the environmental staff that you would like your Representative to:
Vote YES on the Udall FOREST WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AMENDMENT to protect wildlife in our National Forests by halting harmful changes to rules governing forest management practices.
Vote YES on the Chabot/Andrews TONGASS SUBSIDY AMENDMENT to protect pristine areas of the Tongass National Forest by ending taxpayer subsidies of destructive new logging roads.
Vote YES on the Shays/Rahall/Holt/Johnson YELLOWSTONE AMENDMENT to protect the health of America's first National Park, its wildlife, employees and guests, by continuing to phase-out snowmobiles use inside Yellowstone and switch to snowcoaches.
More information available at http://www.americanlands.org/Appropriations/NFMAAmendment.doc, Lisa Dix by e-mail or 202-547-9105.
Posted by jkleissler at 06:00 PM | Comments (0)
Is someone stealing Forest Service signs and using them to cover up timber theft?
It is the question for the ages. A few weeks ago forest defenders with the Allegheny Defense Project came across what appeared to be an illegal logging project conducted without NEPA review and comment. In order to find out if we were correct we filed a Freedom of Information Act request on May 17th asking for documents related to the planning, approval, and implementation of the logging marked by the sign pictured below (as always click to enlarge image).
The above sign and following picture of a steep eroding skid trail were attached to the request which asked for documents "including but not limited to documents related to the site shown in the attached photographs." (click to enlarge image)
The FOIA provides the Forest Service 20 working days to respond. If they are unclear about the request they are supposed to ask for clarification within those 20 working days. Given the specificity of this request this should not have taken the full 20 working days. Nevertheless it did and after 20 working days we got the following cryptic response.
"We do not recognize this project you describe as being administered by the Allegheny National Forest."
Huh? While we had given the project an arbitrary project name in our FOIA the photo of the cutting unit sign should have clarified any questions the Forest Service might have had. As mentioned above we received no clarifying questions about the project.
So I ask: Is someone stealing Forest Service signs and using them to cover up timber theft?
The question is obviously rhetorical, but what is the truth behind this obvious obstruction? Please put on your tinfoil hats and add your theories to the comments thread below.
Posted by jkleissler at 05:11 PM | Comments (3)
June 14, 2004
Allegheny National Forest Organizer's Workshop and Field Training
The Bush Administration has made it a priority to open up our national forests to wide-spread logging and oil & gas drilling while rolling back protections under the guise of “Healthy Forests”. The Administration has focused on Pennsylvania’s Allegheny National Forest as an Eastern “poster child” in their propaganda efforts.
On Earth Day 2004, President Bush sent Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman to the Allegheny National Forest to tout what are in essence destructive commercial logging practices. Calling George Bush the “Conservationist in Chief”, Ann Veneman gave a stump speech as part of an aggressive effort to push a new 6,000-acre logging project without a detailed environmental analysis or meaningful public participation.
The Allegheny Defense Project is leading the fight to defend American forests and freedoms in the Alleghenies. Join us for the Allegheny National Forest Organizer’s Workshop and Field Training and become a first rate forest defender! Whether you are interested in doing field work, leading Wilderness hikes, or organizing citizen support, this training will help you develop the skills and knowledge needed to make protection of the Allegheny a reality.
Work for Clean Water - The Allegheny National Forest was established to protect its watersheds. But management of clean water has not been a priority in decades.
Educate the Public - Table public events and Give Public Presentations. Organize letter writing campaigns and public education events. Share the news about the Allegheny with your friends, the media, and the public at-large.
Engage the Forest Service - Attend public meetings, provide written and vocal testimony, generate letters of support for Allegheny Wild!, and demonstrate public demands for forest protection.
Document Logging Damage - Do field work documenting damage caused by the logging industry in our national forest.
Establish New Wilderness - Work hands on to get new Wilderness designated for the Allegheny National Forest.
End Clearcutting - help put an end to the destructive practice of clearcutting.
Phase out Oil & Gas Drilling - Help document ecological problems created by oil & gas drilling and demonstrate to the public why we need to bring an end to this destructive practice.
Explore Unknown Treasures - Be the first to hike the Tionesta Wilderness loop trail or the Bogus Rocks Scenic Trail. Explore proposed Natural Areas and Historic Sites.
Applications will be accepted through July 1st or until the training is full.
Posted by jkleissler at 05:03 PM | Comments (0)
From Painter Run...
RJ was kind enough to share these two photos with us from Painter Run. As he says, this is a wild place! Click on each image to get a closeup look on our rattler friend!
Posted by jkleissler at 01:56 PM | Comments (2)
June 08, 2004
Laying it on Thick...
The things they'll say to defend the commercial logging program can range from the outrageous to complete nonsense. Here are a couple of claims made in this morning's Warren Times-Observer that deserve at least a quick rebuttal.
Sue Swanson, executive director of AHUG (Allegheny Hardwood Utilization Group), Kane, said, the legal process has "gone on too long." The original legal appeal to the East Side project is "pushing eight years," she said. "That's eight years that nothing has been done in that area of the forest that's badly in need of treatment."
Not exactly. Litigation against East Side has been active for three years, not eight years. The original case against this project when it was Mortality II was filed seven years ago and lasted only six months. Unfortunately, "treatment" has begun on some 1,500 acres. Of course, we don't agree that the forest is "badly in need" of clearcutting.
She said the federal judge found that the Forest Service "did a thorough analysis and came to the right conclusion" about the salvage operation. But the Forest Service has not been able to follow through with its management plans because of legal challenges, she said.
Not exactly. The Federal Judge found that the Forest Service abused its discretion in approving even-aged logging on Group III soils and enjoined logging on 400 acres. The Federal Judge also found the emphasis on black cherry tree management "troubling" even without ruling in our favor in the end.
During a recent tour of the forest, Forest Service personnel said the forest is overmature, resulting in a higher susceptibility to insect infestation and blow down.Without intervention, "It will continue to happen," Swanson said.
I don't recall the Forest Service saying this. And in their defense I believe that when this was alleged during the Bosworth tour Forest Service researcher Susan Stout did not endorse this position. What was documented on the tour was that insect infestations and blowdown are both a direct result of black cherry tree farming. Insect outbreaks in the Allegheny National Forest are directly related to black cherry (and in some cases oak) concentrations. Similarly, black cherry is the tree most susceptible to windthrow and most affected by the July 2003 Windstorm for example.
Hedlund, executive director of the Allegheny Forest Alliance, said the court process "rapes the taxpayer for the expenses."
Can we say that now without getting critized? If ADP used that kind of language the timber industry would be all over us. The court process may cost a few hundred thousand dollars in the end. But the East Side Timber Sale is costing tax-payers millions of dollars (revenues are NOT returned to the tax-payers despite what common sense would tell us). The taxpayer will lose most if East Side is implemented with millions to be spent on logging road construction and "reforestation" costs such as herbicides and fencing. Revenue accrued from timber sales do not usually return to the US Treasury and therefore taxpayers never see that benefit. So it must be official, the timber industry must believe that the East Side Timber Sale is raping the taxpayer for millions! Right? no? Or do they just not care about the truth?
Update: Despite their protestations in this morning's article that they cannot afford to pay their attorney (something that is unbelievable on its face), the timber industry's attorney has filed his appearance on the appeal already. oops!
Posted by jkleissler at 07:52 AM | Comments (0)
June 07, 2004
Painter Run Rip Off
The Painter Run Area is a special place. With parts of this area proposed for inclusion in an old growth landscape corridor we were unhappy with a proposal to intensively salvage log on 300 acres of windblown trees on this plateau area above the Wild & Scenic Clarion River. This is an awesome area unfortunately targeted by the Forest Service.
Painter Run Blowdown. Photo by RJ Mauk.
A lot of folks don't realize that "salvage" logging is an economic reference to salvaging the economic value of a tree before it is lost. "Salvage" logging has nothing to do with forest health. In the Painter Run Environmental Assessment the Forest Service complains that there is a "...need 'to initiate timely salvage of downed and damaged trees." So, getting at the economic value is apparently urgent.
That same document goes on to proclaim that only salvage logging alternatives will make money with anticipated gross revenue for chosen Alternative 2 being $149,520. After costs of $57,377 and reduced value from tree defects the total anticipated revenue was to be $47,287. Or so they claimed.
The Painter Run Windthrow Salvage was noticed for bidding and opening of the bids was scheduled for March 31, 2004. The original bid notice can be viewed here. If you calculate the "minimum" bid out you'll see that the minimum anticipated bid was $34,908.46. That is only $69,755.54 less than the anticipated revenue minus tree defects.
The final bid summary and award can be viewed by clicking on the image below.
Woah! Only one bidder. And the total bid was only $35,908.46 or exactly $1,000 higher than the minimum bid. And exactly $68,755.54 less than the anticipated revenue predicted in the Environmental Assessment. Anticipated losses using planning costs and road maintenance costs assumed by us tax-payers = $21,468.54.
We've never traced out the differences between revenue claims made in EAs and bids before. Partially this is because there is usually short-term and long-term contracts anticipated and it would take years to do. But in this case the sale was justified by its urgency. The total volume in the bid prospectus appears to be at least 80% of what was anticipated in the Environmental Assessment. So I don't see an adequate explanation for this massive gap in claimed economic benefits. There was no delay on this project - it has been implemented as scheduled.
Maybe there is an explanation. There better be a good one.
Posted by jkleissler at 05:24 PM | Comments (5)
BEATfest Rocks out for Allegheny Forests
The Buffalo Environmental Action Team hosted a fun benefit for the Friends of Ancient Forests (working to protect the old growth forest at Zoar Valley) and the Allegheny Defense Project.
"Petition" to Stop Logging in the Allegheny. Click to enlarge.
A fun time was had by all in attendance including ADP organizers Ron Cook and Jim Kleissler. The event featured excellent music, good food, and representatives from numerous area conservation groups. The Allegheny Defense Project is very appreciative of the folks at Buffalo Environmental Action Team for their great effort in putting on this fun event.
The Allegheny Defense Project giving a slideshow. Click to enlarge.
Posted by jkleissler at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)
June 03, 2004
Public Meeting Revisited
Today, was the first of two public meetings scheduled for this week. It was an experience - they always are. If you can make it this Saturday (June 5th) - the Allegheny National Forest needs your voice. Click here for the details.
Posted by jkleissler at 07:19 PM | Comments (0)
June 02, 2004
Hearts Content Scenic Area
If you have never been to Hearts Content Scenic Area you haven't seen nothing. This old growth forest is tremendous. It has suffered from some mortality due to Beech Bark Disease and acid rain but remains a vibrant old growth forest with excellent regeneration. Here are a few photos from a stroll with my dog this afternoon. Click on each image for a full view.
Posted by jkleissler at 05:43 PM | Comments (1)
June 01, 2004
ADP joins Heartwood in Virgina
Members of the Allegheny Defense Project joined Heartwood for their annual Forest Council, this year in Virginia's beautiful George Washington National Forest.
Click above for larger image.
Festivities included workshops on forest ecology, activism, air pollution, mountain-top removal coal mining and more. There were also many field trips including a canoe trip down the Shenandoah River, hikes up Massanutten Mountain and a visit to nearby Shenanhoah National Park.
Featured guests included author Richard Manning and Granny D., who at the age of 90 walked across America for campaign finance reform. Now, Granny D. is travelling across the country in this Winnebago getting women registered to vote.
The Ancient Forest Roadshow visited the Forest Council, displaying the destruction of Pacific Northwest Forests at the hands of the Forest Service. 88,000 acres of old-growth forests with trees like this 6 1/2 ft. diameter Douglas fir are threatened by logging. Visit the roadshow's website to learn more about how you can protect ancient forests!
Folks relaxed at night by the fire with music by Danny Dolinger and many other talented musicians and poets. Thanks to the restless Heartwood folks for all their efforts and to the sleepless cooks who made sure all were well-fed from dawn to dusk!
Posted by Ryan at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)
Salvage Logging Projects Approved
The word hit today as three logging projects that are part of the massive 6,000-acre salvage windthrow plan in the Allegheny National Forest were approved. There is a lot to say about this but our briefest take is in our press release:
Clarion, PA – Three logging projects were approved yesterday as part of a large 6,000-acre salvage logging project in the Allegheny National Forest that has brought two top Bush Administration officials to Pennsylvania and has drawn repeated criticism from conservation groups.The Forest Road 191 Salvage was approved on May 21, 2004, but was not announced by the Forest Service until today. The Forest Road 395 and Forest Road 468 Salvage Logging Projects were approved by US Forest Service officials on May 27 and 28, 2004.
US Forest Service Chief Bosworth toured the Allegheny National Forest to promote these controversial logging projects on May 10th after having an exclusive breakfast with the local timber industry. These projects were highlighted during a controversial Earth Day visit by Secretary of Agriculture Anne Veneman who used the day traditionally meant to celebrate the environment to support these commercial logging projects in the Allegheny National Forest.
...
Conservationists also challenged the accuracy of original documentation on the project. They pointed to areas approved for logging outside of the “project area” identified in the original public notice.
“When we tried to compare the proposed logging areas in the public notice with the on the ground survey work they didn’t appear to match,” explained Jim Kleissler, Forest Watch Director with the Allegheny Defense Project. “It appears that the public notices for these logging projects were out of date before they were ever released to the public. Public participation and forest conservation are being undermined by government officials who believe that national forests should be logged at any cost.”
Posted by jkleissler at 06:14 PM | Comments (4)
Oil & Gas Leasing on Federal Public Lands
This is an interesting article on federal oil & gas leasing:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly three-fourths of the 40 million acres of public land currently leased for oil and gas development in the continental United States isn't producing any oil or gas, federal records show, even as the Bush administration pushes to open more environmentally sensitive public lands for oil and gas development.An Associated Press computer analysis of Bureau of Land Management records found that 80 percent of federal lands leased for oil and gas production in Wyoming are producing no oil or gas. Neither are 83 percent of the leased acres in Montana, 77 percent in Utah, 71 percent in Colorado, 36 percent in New Mexico and 99 percent in Nevada.
How much exploration has occurred on the nearly 30 million acres of non-producing public land leases is difficult to say. BLM officials could provide no details on the number of exploratory wells drilled on those leases, despite repeated requests for that information over the past two months.
But with so much public land already available for exploration, environmental groups and local landowners are questioning why the Bush administration is pushing to lease still more federal land to the oil and gas industry, particularly in areas that the groups and some lawmakers want protected as federal wilderness areas.
For an alternative take, the oil industry often argues that leasing of public lands is not a big deal because it doesn't mean a public lands area will be drilled. And while this is true it is also true that once leased it is very difficult to provide a public lands area with greater protections.
I don't have a link for the article itself but it was accompanied with these two neat charts:
• The top 100 oil and gas lease holders on federal lands by acres leased
Now you'll notice that for the most part that oil & gas activity in the Allegheny National Forest is not reflected here. This is because 93% of the minerals under the Allegheny National Forest are privately held. So while much of this acreage is under lease - little of it is under federal lease. The numbers for Pennsylvania are:
Acres Leased: 7,669 acres
Acres Non-Producing: 2,804 acres
Percent Non-Producing: 36.4%
Posted by jkleissler at 09:41 AM | Comments (3)