Hellbender Journal Summer/Fall 2001

National Spotlight: Allegheny Cited "Number One Most Endangered National Forest" By Rachel Martin and the National Forest Protection Alliance

In September, the National Forest Protection Alliance (NFPA), along with world-renowned forest activist, Julia Butterfly Hill, and members of Congress released a startling new report, "America's 10 Most Endangered National Forests." The report, which paints a grim ecological picture, documents the timber industry's systematic destruction of the national forest system by highlighting the many threats posed from the commercial logging program. NFPA is using the report to demand an end to the Bush AdministrationÕs pro-timber, anti-public lands agenda.

The Allegheny was chosen as the #1 most endangered national forest because it is a prime example of the growing threats to our eastern national forests. The 64 million board foot East Side timber sale will result in 8,600 acres of cutting - larger than any other timber sale in the East. This timber sale, combined with skyrocketing oil and gas development, has given the Allegheny the dubious honor of being the number one most endangered national forest. The East Side project proposes 3,000 acres of clearcuts, 3,600 acres of herbicide application, 125 miles of road construction and reconstruction, and 1,293 acres of fertilizer application.

Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), co-champion of the National Forest Protection & Restoration Act - which currently has 104 co-sponsors in Congress - stressed the sobering nature of the report, stating, "This report provides an alarming snapshot of what a century of resource exploitation has done to our national forests." She continued, "It also underscores new threats, including the timber industry and U.S. Forest Service using wildfires as an excuse to log, the Bush Administration's attempt to do away with the Roadless Area Initiative and the shift in the federal timber sale program from western national forests to those located in the middle and eastern portions of the country."

"Commercial logging interests and other extractive industries being allowed, and even encouraged, on our national forest lands is short-sighted, ecologically destructive, barbaric and a disgrace to the American people who have been entrusted with their care," stated Julia Butterfly Hill, made famous by her two-year tree sit in the redwood forests of northern California. Commenting on the need for a new federal forest policy, she said, "For these forests, and all the species dependent on them, it is imperative that our government immediately enact the change that people all across this country are crying out for."

The ten national forests were selected from a total of 18 nominations and ranked in the following order: Allegheny (Pennsylvania); Ouachita (Arkansas-Oklahoma); Black Hills (South Dakota-Wyoming); Tongass (Alaska); Umpqua (Oregon); Clearwater (Idaho); George Washington/Jefferson (Virginia); Ottawa (Michigan); Gifford Pinchot (Washington); and Plumas/Lassen/Tahoe (California). Even-aged forest management (e.g. clearcutting) remains the single largest threat to each of these forests, with other notable threats being oil and gas exploration, mining projects, grazing leases and off-road vehicles (ORVs).

In the Allegheny, nearly 70% of the national forest is specifically managed under this "even-aged" regime. In addition, oil and gas drilling in Pennsylvania's only national forest has increased by an alarming 500% over the past five years.

The report focuses on the major justifications currently being used by the Forest Service and timber industry to continue logging our national forests. Timber sales are increasingly being disguised behind post-fire salvage logging, "forest health" initiatives and restoration programs, and wildfire. "Forest health" is currently the primary reason the Forest Service claims that clearcutting is necessary in the Allegheny.

"The Forest Service has changed their public relations techniques over the past decade in response to the American public's overwhelming desire to see their forests protected and restored. Unfortunately, their emphasis on getting the cut out has not changed. This is abundantly clear in the Allegheny, where nearly every clearcut is couched in misleading 'forest health' language," stated Jim Kleissler, Forest Watch Director for the Allegheny Defense Project.

Perhaps the gravest political threat is the Bush Administration's nomination of Mark Rey, former timber industry lobbyist, to oversee the Forest Service. "Few persons in the whole history of our national forests have had as sinister and destructive an impact on them as Mark Rey, Bush's nominee for Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources," said Brock Evans, Executive Director of the Endangered Species Coalition and NFPA Board Member.

Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA), the Republican champion of H.R. 1494, said, "At first blush, some might think ending logging on federal land is environmental extremism, but in fact, it is common sense." He further noted, "Forest preservation is neither a regional nor a partisan issue. The national forests belong to all Americans, and their proper management is everybody's business."

According to Brent Blackwelder, President of Friends of the Earth, "If you wonder what the U.S. Forest Service does with our tax money, this report on 'America's 10 Most Endangered National Forests' documents the shocking extent of mismanagement and abuse." He continued, "It surely ought to cause our elected officials to take immediate corrective action."

"Our national forest system, one of America's greatest natural treasures, is being systematically looted by Big Timber, aided and abetted by the U.S. Forest Service," concluded Tom Weis, Executive Director of NFPA, citing broad-based public support, with polls showing two thirds of Americans opposed to national forest logging.

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