The debate over how to best conserve the Allegheny National Forest and its regional economies has been raging for near ten years now. But still so much of this debate relies upon false claims about our local economies - made mostly by certain persons with a financial interest in promoting these distortions. The Allegheny Wild! vision was developed using real economic principles based upon real economic facts about our area. The Logging and Jobs Myth Logging jobs are an important part of our economy. The significance to our local economy of national forest logging and even logging jobs in general, however, are commonly overstated. For example, studies have shown that less than 2% of jobs in Warren County are tied to the logging industry. McKean County probably has the most jobs tied to the timber industry but it also has the largest concentration of land owned by the timber industry. Both of these facts stem from the reality that the local timber industry depends primarily on private lands timbering for its sustenance. The Sustainability of Private Lands Logging One common argument made by those with financial incentives is to privatize the timber in the national forest because timber companies today log sustainably. If this were true it would contradict the very argument that the timber industry needs public lands to provide its timber base. With most forest land in the area in private hands one must wonder why those lands are not sufficient if they are being sustainably managed. Of course, if there is a problem it stems from the lack of responsible, sustainable management by timber companies. It does not logically follow that since timber companies abuse their own lands they should be allowed to abuse public lands as well. Developing Sustainable Local Economies In order for the term to mean anything, sustainability must be defined. Sustainability of the economy ought to measured over at least seven generations as the well known proverb suggests. In the Allegheny National Forest area certain economic interests want us to believe that a cycle of logging that compromises our area's beauty and natural attractions is somehow sustainable. The continued depletion of our soils caused by the logging methods used, combined with acid deposition, raises the question of whether we can continue to regenerate black cherry as we have in the past. The reality is that we are already having significant regeneration problems after only 2 or 3 cutting episodes. False Perceptions There are a number of false perceptions about our economy. We tend to overstate the importance of timber. After all, everyone knows someone who works in the timber industry. The truth is that we know a lot more people who work in the service and tourist economies than in timber. Heck there isn't a person in Forest County who can claim not to know a retiree who migrated from Pittsburgh or Ohio. And each one of these elderly persons is, in and of himself, an economic force - pumping money made elsewhere into our economy. Working for Sustainability In order for sustainability to be properly measured we have to consider management activities that preserve our natural attractions instead of degrading them. With our area's natural forest environment clearly our number one attraction we should be primarily considering how to preserve that beauty . You won't see many tourism borchures with clearcuts on the cover. It is indisputable that a clearcut conducted today makes a forest area unsuitable for most recreation for eighty years because it removes the primary attraction provided by older forests. A Field Test None of this needs to be tested in a vacuum. In 1999, logging in the Allegheny National Forest was stopped for six months. This created a real scenario to assess the economic impacts of protecting the national forest. Pro-industry legislators were able to move funding towards an economic study prepared by Penn State that was quite frankly rigged to make logging look more valuable than it was. The result? Economists found that the most likely result of an end to commercial logging would be a net gain of jobs. Allegheny Wild! So would the scenario under Allegheny Wild! reflect this research out of Penn State or some other reality? The most likely outcome based on our review of the economic data is that Allegheny Wild! would result in an even more favorable outcome for our local economy. Allegheny Wild! through its establishment of stronger recreation facilities, more hiking, bicycle, and ski trails, and more special protection areas such as Wilderness and Recreation Areas would provide the types of attractions to not only maintain current recreation levels but to expand them with minimal environmental impacts. This would preserve our local ecology while helping to build a sustainable economy for seven generations to come. |
