Scandal in the Woods
Posted January 15, 2009 in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
"The practical importance of the preservation of our forests is augmented by their relations to climate, soil, and streams."
Sound like a quote from Al Gore, circa 2006? No -- John Muir, 1876. Over a hundred years ago Muir and fellow conservationists put our leaders on notice of the connection between forest health and climate. Now, a growing body of literature confirms the dire consequences of having ignored their call to protect our remaining wild forests.
At the heart of any scandal lies the question of who knew what when. For decades, our leadership has had all the evidence it needs to prioritize forest preservation. That makes the ongoing, federally subsidized plunder of our largest national forest--Alaska's Tongass--a monumental scandal indeed.
In September, Bush officials used some of their last moments in office to stamp 'approved' on plans to open up millions of pristine acres in the Tongass to destructive logging and new timber roads. Unless President-elect Obama acts quickly, the chainsaws could start up as early as this spring.
Last summer, I had the life-changing opportunity to travel to the heart of the Tongass and to record the stories of remarkable people who are seeing the consequences of this scandal unfold every day. Traveling with them, I was able to witness first hand the scale of the waste and experience the breathtaking wonder of what remains. As a consequence, I have come to share the depth of their feeling for the forest they call home.
Hear their voices first hand in the video above and please consider taking action now to urge President-elect Obama to protect the Tongass by upholding the Roadless Rule there-and in all national forests across the country.
Comments are closed for this post.
Comments
Phil Sammon, Public Affairs Officer - Tongass NF — Jan 16 2009 01:25 PM
First off, as the Public Affairs Officer for the Tongass, I appreciate the public involvement that groups like NRDC provide and stimulate in the management of our public lands and natural resources. The majority of the public is uneducated and uninformed about the complexities of multiple-use, sustained management of our natural resources, and the benefits the Forest Service and other federal and state agencies provide. Increasing that understanding and involving more informed people in the process makes the process work more effectively for us all.
I would like to add a couple relevant facts to your blog about the Tongass - particularly as they related to this statement from your column:
"...to open up millions of pristine acres in the Tongass to destructive logging and new timber roads."
Since the Tongass and the Forest Service first began preparing and implementing Forest Plans, there have been “millions of acres” of forest that “open” to logging – the significant difference is that while that may be the suitable land base, the reality is that only 667,000 acres of forested lands on the Tongass are available for logging over a 10-year period – roughly 67,000 acres per year.
Under the new 2008 Forest Plan Amendment, the structure of the program is guided by the Timber Adaptive Management Strategy. This strategy provides timber sales that match the actual board-foot capacity of the mills over a given period, generally in a five-year timber plan. Currently that level is about 85MMBF per year combined – not just federal timber sales, but state, tribal and private combined (For a point of reference for everyone, 1 million board feet of timber, in dimensional lumber, will only construct some 83 houses (1400 sq.ft, 3-BR) – where most people live that is only a small part of most urban developments.).
The first Phase of this Strategy sets criteria that focuses timber sales in the unroaded and roaded areas of the forest – until the capacity exceeds 100MMBF per year for two consecutive years. Only after that threshold is crossed would the Tongass increase the sale quantity beyond current quantity of less than 100MMBF per year.
The timber program on the Tongass has been producing far less timber than many Districts on Forests in the lower 48 over the past 10 years or so. Upper limits of board feet, acreages and annual sale quantity (ASQ) are just that – upper limits. That does not mean the program starts at those levels. Because of the size of the timber sales and the capacity of the mills currently operating, we have a long way to go before we would get to the harvest numbers everyone uses to scare people into thinking that the Tongass will be void of forest in the next year.
Thanks for the opportunity to add these relevant facts to the mix!
Amy Reger — Jan 16 2009 07:37 PM
67,000 acres per year- I just figured out that that's the size of more than 50,000 football fields per year. While the Tongass might not be "void of forest in the next year" under Bush's plan, that would seem to be a pretty destructive figure for an area that is one of the few remaining protected national forests we have.
Franz Matzner — Jan 17 2009 03:12 PM
Thank you Amy. You raise a very good point about the scale of the destruction and that despite the numbers game often played to muddy the waters, the fact remains that we are talking about the few wild, ancient forests we have left.
It isn't really a valid defense to say only a small percentage of these forests is logged each year. That is like claiming that moths only destroyed, say, ten square inches of your wardrobe because they only ate a few holes in each garment. Clear-cutting a few hundred acres in a pristine watershed and punching in a road network destroys the natural character of many thousands of acres, and the Forest Service knows that perfectly well.
The heart of the issue is not necessarily how much is being logged, but where the logging takes place. That is the fundamental purpose of the Roadless Rule: to ensure that the still unlogged, unroaded, intact portions of our national forests remain that way far into the future, and are not whittled away one clear-cut, one log, one road at a time.
Jason Hawke — Jan 18 2009 07:48 AM
I like your point about having pristine forest untouched by roads or logging. A forests only value isn't just its wood - its the biodiversity, clean air, and water that it provides as well. We have so few original forests left in America compared to what it was like when Europeans first got here. Will we need to chop down every single old growth tree for the timber people to be happy?
Its funny that while people worry about clean air and water we are still cutting down trees. That while we explore technologies for sequestering carbon we are still cutting down forests. The reality is that if we lived in a sustainable manner with our planet we wouldn't have to deal with human induced climate change.