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Scientists Ask Immediate End to Logging U.S. National Forests
WASHINGTON, DC, April 16, 2002 (ENS) - Stop the destructive practice of commercial logging in America's national forests, 221 of the country's most eminent scientists urged President George W. Bush in a letter signed today. The scientists say that without protection from further logging, the country's precious biological diversity will be lost.
Clearcut logging(Photo courtesy Sierra Club)
"As conservation-minded scientists with many years of experience in biological sciences and ecology," the letter says, "we are writing to bring your attention to the need to protect our national forests. Logging our national forests has not only degraded increasingly rare and valuable habitat, but also numerous other services such as recreation and clean water."
Well known scientist signers include Dr. Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University professor and Pulitzer Prize winning author, Dr. Anne Ehrlich, associate director of Stanford University's Center for Conservation Biology, and Dr. Peter Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden and recipient of the 2000 President's National Medal of Science.
"During the past several decades," the scientists wrote, "our national forests have suffered from intense commercial logging. Today almost all of our old growth forests are gone and the timber industry has turned our national forests into a patchwork of clearcuts, logging roads, and devastated habitat."
The scientists are asking the President to replace commercial logging with a scientifically based program to restore habitat and native species throughout the 192 million acre national forest system.
Dr. Raven said, "Our national forests are home to a vast array of plant and animal species, many in a delicate balance of survival. We must protect and restore these species, the fragile forest ecosystems on which they depend, and our natural forest heritage."
v The letter was released to the public by the Sierra Club, National Forest Protection Alliance, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, who share the scientists' views.
An attempt at reforestation on the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest that was unsuccessful (Photo courtesy American Lands)
"Protecting our National Forests is an investment in the future," said Tiernan Sittenfeld of PIRG. "Unfortunately, the Forest Service is pushing for more logging, which would return us to the destructive policies of the past. We urge the administration to heed the advice of these eminent scientists."
The three conservation groups who released the letter today charge Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey, a former timber lobbyist and Senate staffer on the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, with "pursuing numerous avenues for increasing logging on our national forests."
Rey is now in a position to control what happens in the U.S. national forests, and conservationists point to his, "recent attempts to gut the Northwest Forest Protection Plan, rewrite the Roadless Area Conservation Rule to allow for more logging, mining and drilling, and turn management of national forests over to special interests through charter forest initiatives."
v "When more than 200 highly respected scientists agree that logging our national forests is detrimental to the environment, wildlife and the economy, we hope the Bush administration listens. These scientists know that our forests provide clean water and recreational opportunities for all Americans," said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club.
Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth puts economic considerations on the balance scale along with ecological ones when evaluating timber sales on the national forests. He told an audience in Washington, DC on January 27, "Our goal at the Forest Service is to work with our fellow Americans to strike the right balance between social, economic, and ecological sustainability. In this way we can meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs — and make their own informed choices. We must get together as Americans to restore the national forests to health."
But in practice, the scientists and conservation groups say, the timber industry has turned America's publicly owned national forests into a patchwork of clearcuts and logging roads. "Commercial logging, subsidized by American taxpayers, drains nutrients from the soil, washes topsoil into streams, destroys wildlife habitat and intensifies the severity of forest fires," the groups say.
Clearcuts on the Willamette National Forest, Oregon (Photo courtesy American Lands)
In today's letter, the scientists told President Bush that according to the Forest Service and independent economists timber accounts for only 2.7 percent of the total values of goods and services derived from the National Forests, while recreation and fish and wildlife produce 84.6 percent.
Annually, timber produces roughly $4 billion per year while recreation, fish and wildlife, clean water, and unroaded areas provide a combined total of $224 billion to the American economy each year, the scientists wrote.
"When the dramatic values of ecological goods and services are taken into account, it is clear that protecting national forests creates more economic benefits than continued logging. Moreover, only four percent of America's timber supply comes from national forests."
"Timber should no longer be extracted from our national forests," the scientists urged, "especially when it comes at the expense of biological diversity and healthy ecosystems." |
