April 24, 2004

For Immediate Release

Secretary of Agriculture Tours Illegal Logging Projects, Shuts Out Public

Bush Administration's Pro-Logging Agenda Threatening National Forests

Kane, PA – Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman and U.S. Congressman John Peterson used Earth Day as a platform to promote increased logging during a tour in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny National Forest today. The tour was geared toward promoting the Bush Administration’s “Healthy Forests Initiative”, which decreases opportunities for public participation and weakens environmental impact considerations in commercial logging projects in our national forests.

Conservation groups objected to the tour today noting that the highlighted projects were not legal even under the Bush Administration’s Healthy Forest Initiative. Ryan Talbott, a resident of Forest County and organizer with the conservation group Allegheny Defense Project was prohibited from joining the tour and threatened with arrest for trying to observe this tour of public lands areas. The tour highlighted commercial logging proposed as a response to natural wind-storm events that felled trees last summer.

"A Forest Service law enforcement officer told me that if I did not leave immediately I would be arrested," said Talbott. "I was told that this tour on public land by public officials was by invite only and any attempt to join the tour with Congressman Peterson and Secretary Veneman would result in my arrest."

"Congressman Peterson and Secretary Veneman are touring a series of illegal salvage logging projects proposed for the Allegheny National Forest,” explained Jim Bensman from Heartwood, a national forest conservation organization that has successfully challenged the use of Categorical Exclusions such as those being promoted to push logging in the Allegheny. "The Forest Service is trying to break down timber sales into several small projects instead of doing the detailed analysis that is normally required for a logging project of this size."

Allegheny National Forest projects which are being used to "Categorically Exclude" salvage logging from more detailed public involvement and environmental analysis include Martin Run, FR191 Salvage, and FR 395/396 Salvage. Attempts to Categorically Exclude salvage logging within the Martin Run project were withdrawn after it was pointed out that the activities were illegal. Public comment is currently being accepted on the FR 191 Salvage until April 23 and the FR 395/396 Salvage until April 30th. The Categorical Exclusion allows the Forest Service to hold shorter public comment periods, limit comment opportunities to a single time-frame, and avoid detailed environmental assessments.

"These windstorm events serve a valuable function, as they provide downed woody debris otherwise missing throughout much of the Allegheny National Forest," said Rachel Martin, a naturalist with the Allegheny Defense Project. "Ecologically, dead and downed wood is as important to a healthy forest as live trees. Dead and downed trees provide important habitat for birds, salamanders, and small mammals, and are a vital source of nutrients for tree seedlings."

Conservation Groups pointed out that "salvage logging" is an economic, not an ecological term. Salvage logging is performed to "salvage" the economic value of trees before it is lost. The term salvage logging has no direct relationship to forest health.

"The Bush Administration's publicity stunt makes a mockery of Earth Day by encouraging more industrial logging in US National Forests ," said Andrew George, campaign coordinator for the National Forest Protection Alliance who identified the Allegheny National Forest as the most endangered national forest in a report released three years ago. "If the Bush Administration celebrates clearcutting on Earth Day, it tells you something about their logging agenda for the rest of the year. They honor Earth Day by pushing more logging in public lands and removing citizen rights over those lands."

Nationally, conservationists are urging President Bush to announce on Earth Day an end to old growth logging and support for protecting the nation’s remaining wild forest heritage. For a complete review of administration policies that threaten forests, please see The Wilderness Society report "Bush Administration Record on America's National Forests".

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