| SW Idaho national forests shift
away from resource use
(Note from RT: I do not think this is just in Idaho.) (Note: The 'environmentalists' plan' is a mere 7,000 pages of paper that means the cutting/processing of TREES for this overkill document.) August 1, 2003 Casper Star-Tribune Casper, Wyoming To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@trib.com Boise, Idaho (AP) - Federal land managers in southwestern and central Idaho are changing their priorities to emphasize the environment and recreation over logging, grazing and mining. The Idaho Conservation League acknowledged the move toward ecosystem restoration but objected to the possibility of logging millions of acres of roadless area. The new long-range management plans for the Boise, Payette and Sawtooth national forests, released on Friday, reduce the land considered suitable for commercial timber sales from 1.75 million to 1 million acres of the 6.6 million acres the forests cover. The allowable timber sales on the three forests are set at 83.5 million board feet a year, just over half of the cut authorized in the old management plans. The plans retain the long-standing recommendation for 655,000 acres of additional wilderness and call for no development activity on another 620,000 acres of roadless area. But it identified 147,000 acres within the 2.6 million acres of roadless land as suitable for commercial timber sales and authorized restoration or salvage logging on another 1.8 million acres of roadless area. ''Many of the acres identified within these roadless areas are in high to extreme hazard for fire and/or insect and disease infestation,'' the planning documents said. Boise National Forest Supervisor Dick Smith said the plans permit roadless logging and prescribed fire to relieve that pressure. He called the plans a balance between restoration and economic opportunity while supporting social and cultural values. John McCarthy, policy director for the Idaho Conservation League, said the 7,000 pages that represent seven years of discussion and debate offer major improvements from the management strategy of the 1980s and even from the draft long-range management plans released three years ago. ''Unfortunately, the plans open the door to salvage logging -- with no ecological benefit -- on three quarters of the roadless areas,'' McCarthy said. ''Salvage logging might have conceptual economic benefits, but in reality there is no competitive market and limited sawmills.'' Payette National Forest Supervisor Mark Madrid maintained that while the roadless rule prohibits roads it does not prohibit activity in the area. But Smith conceded that the logging contemplated by the plans, even in the areas designated as commercially suitable, poses a challenge for sale because the trees are smaller in diameter and the market is currently depressed. While the Boise Forest logged an average of 55 million board feet a year since 1990, the last five years have averaged only 20 million board feet. The new plan contemplates 45 million a year. A combination of depressed market conditions and environmental legal challenges was being blamed, and McCarthy suggested the courthouse may be the destination again if the Forest Services attempts salvage logging in roadless areas of any of the three forests. There is no clear court position on the viability of the so-called roadless rule. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the rule last year but a federal judge in Wyoming overturned the rule earlier this month. --- On the Net: Boise National Forest: http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/boise/bnfstyle.css Payette National Forest: http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/payette/main.html Sawtooth National Forest: http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/sawtooth/ |