March 25, 2005
Logging, Oil & Gas drilling increases in 2004
The 2004 Annual Report is out for the Allegheny National Forest - oil & gas drilling increased over the past year and the amount of timber sold from the forest nearly doubled. Logging itself also increased with over 1,300 acres being clearcut and about 2,400 acres being thinned for future clearcutting.
While this increase is not good to see, it is still well below what the Forest Service (and the timber industry) would like to see. Here's some pics from recent clearcutting and oil & gas drilling in the Little Salmon Creek watershed.
PGE oil well in FR 165 re-entry clearcut.
Another PGE well in FR 165 re-entry clearcut.
This is why we do what we do. This clearcut was part of the FR 165 re-entry timber sale. Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) continues to degrade the entire Salmon Creek watershed with their intensive oil and gas extraction activities. 321 new oil and gas wells were drilled in 2004, the second highest amount since 1986. It is irresponsible for the Forest Service to ignore the impacts of oil and gas drilling on this National Forest.
These pictures were taken just a few miles north of Marienville, the town I grew up in. It's hard to relate the feelings I had when I stood in that clearcut and saw so many new oil and gas wells and their associated facilities (roads, storage tanks, pipelines, etc.) Corporations have complete control over the Allegheny National Forest. I fear what the Allegheny will look like in 20 years if the current rate of oil and gas drilling continues. Who will want to come to the Allegheny for recreation purposes? Who is going to want to come back to a forest that is full of oil and gas wells and clearcuts to perpetuate black cherry?
Ryan
Posted by Ryan at 02:18 PM | Comments (4)
April 12, 2004
Forest Service misleads public - again
In an effort to bolster public support for more logging in national forests in response to fires in the west, the Forest Service released a photo showing a thinned forest that they claim represents what forests in the Sierra Nevada looked like before European settlement.
The logic? Well, thinned forests existed then and now they are "overcrowded" and need to be restored to what they once were.
However, there is just a couple problems with what the Forest Service did. First, the photo that was used to represent what pre-European settlement of the Sierra Nevada looked like was taken after the area had been logged!
Second, the photo was taken in Montana - not the Sierra Nevada! When called on the misleading representation, Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes said:
“Our goal here was to ... increase the clarity and understandability of our message. We needed to be accurate but not necessarily precise to the 99th degree.”
Sounds like post-invasion Iraq failing the discovery of any weapons of mass destruction.
Posted by Ryan at 04:56 PM | Comments (0)
October 21, 2003
So-called 'workshops' amount to minimal public input
The Forest Service, contrary to their press statements, is purposely excluding the public from Forest Plan revision.
The evidence of this is in their location and times in which they are deciding to hold public hearings. Two informal workshops (not public hearings) are being held on Oct. 27 & 28 (Monday and Tuesday) from 5:30 to 9:30 in Warren and Erie, respectively. The last round of meetings included Erie and Warren and the Forest Service received comments that in order to reach out to larger populations that represent a large portion of Allegheny visitors, they should hold meetings in large cities surrounding the Allegheny.
This is not happening. The only formal public hearing for this round of commenting is being held in State College on Wednesday, November 5th from 1 to 5 p.m!!
Steve Miller, ANF public affairs officer, says:
"We're trying. We're giving it a very, very heartfelt effort here (to include public comment in the Forest Plan revision process)."
Really?? How is holding the only public hearing from 1 to 5 pm a "heartfelt effort"??
Why is it that Forest Supervisor Kevin Elliott can travel to Pittsburgh for a private forum to discuss Allegheny National Forest managment but not for a public forum about the revision of that managment?
Posted by Ryan at 02:34 PM | Comments (2)
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 06:14 PM | Comments (0)