The American people own 192 million acres of land within the National Forest System that are managed by the Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. These national forest lands contain valuable habitat for fish and wildlife, including many endangered species, watersheds that provide clean water, and some of the finest recreation areas in the country.  

Here is a brief list of issues expected to affect management of the National Forests in 2005:

Taxpayer Subsidized Logging in the Tongass National Forest, Alaska
The Bush administration is aggressively moving forward with nearly 50 roadless area logging projects in the Tongass National Forest, which will cost taxpayers over $166 million to administer. 
According to Forest Service data, taxpayers lost $35 million in 2002 and have spent nearly $1 billion since 1982 letting the timber industry clearcut the Tongass.  It’s irresponsible for the federal government to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing the timber industry in Alaska and, in the process, damaging an international treasure that attracts hunters, fishermen and tourists from around the world.

In 2004, a bi-partisan majority in the House of Representatives passed the Tongass subsidy amendment, offered by Reps. Steve Chabot (R-OH) and Robert Andrews (D-NJ), that prohibited taxpayer dollars from being used to subsidize timber-road construction in the Tongass National Forest.  The Tongass Subsidy amendment is expected to be offered again this year by Reps. Chabot and Andrews.  For more information contact Caitlin Hills, Alaska Rainforest Campaign (202) 266-0442 or see http://www.taxpayer.net/forest/tongass/index.htm.


Forest Conversion Legislation Expected this Session
Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) have indicated they will try to move legislation that would require the intensive logging and conversion into artificial plantations of any area of a National Forest that has experienced a natural disturbance, such as fire, insect outbreak or windstorm.  This bill is a recipe to turn National Forests outside of designated Wilderness Areas into tree farms that provide the public little recreational opportunity or benefits to wildlife at tremendous cost to the taxpayers and the environment. 

In 2003, President Bush signed the Healthy Forests Restoration Act after congressional negotiators agreed to changes in the bill that allow more logging farther from communities, reduce environmental analysis, and limit opportunities for public participation. The law fails to adequately prioritize resources needed to protect communities from fire and citizens have less opportunity to participate effectively in federal land management decisions and a limited ability to challenge ecologically damaging projects.

Funding for fuel reduction projects depend on annual appropriations and the administration continues to give communities at risk from fire the cold shoulder.  In the President’s FY 2006 budget for the Forest Service and Department of Interior, the administration claims it will provide $867 million in Healthy Forests Initiative funding for reducing wildland fire threat.  However, a closer look reveals that only $492 million is for hazardous fuel reduction and $374 million is funding from other programs such as forest products, forest management, vegetation and watershed, wildlife and fish, and rangeland management.  The agencies are double-counting funds from other programs as Healthy Forests Initiative funding.

It should be noted that the administration is counting $120 million for Forest Management and Forest Products as Healthy Forests Initiative funding.  Commercial logging has been shown to increase fire risks by leaving behind flammable debris and drying out forests.

With 85% of the lands at risk being non-federal, a much larger portion of funding should be directed to state, tribal and local governments to focus on land in and immediately adjacent to communities, where it would do the most good.  In the President’s budget, only $22 million of the proposed $867 million in Healthy Forests Initiative funding (approximately two percent) will go to State Fire Assistance and Forest Health Management on state and private lands.

Ancient Forests Targeted for Increased Logging
Also known as “old growth,” less than ten percent of our ancient forest remains, most of it in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Scientists and conservationists believe that all of the remaining ancient forest should be saved for future generations.

In 2004 the Bush administration adopted changes to the Northwest Forest Plan that will significantly increase the logging of trees that are hundreds of years old and up to six feet in diameter in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California.  The administration has also made changes to the Sierra Nevada Framework in 2004 affecting 11.5 million acres of National Forest, allowing a tripling of previous logging levels and the cutting of larger trees, including old growth.  This logging plan is being challenged by the State of California and separately by a coalition of conservation groups.

Additional changes are expected in 2005 including a new management plan for the Oregon and California (O&C) railroad grant lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.  The administration agreed to an out-of-court settlement with the timber industry that will require logging all of the old growth reserves on the O&C lands.  Contact: Joseph Vaile, Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Project, 541/488-5789, joseph@kswild.org.

In the Northern Rockies, the Forest Service continues to log old growth forests.  This is often justified with claims that the forests have excess old growth, but recent investigative reports indicate that the agency’s inventories are often flawed, if not downright fraudulent.  A federal court recently halted logging plans on the Panhandle National Forests of Idaho because the Forest Service old growth inventories were grossly inaccurate.  Moreover, in a recent investigative report conservationists discovered that over 50 percent of the agency’s old growth inventory on the Panhandle has been logged.  For more information contact Mike Petersen, The Lands Council, 509/838-4912.

Roadless Areas on the Chopping Block  
Of the 192 million acres of land in the National Forest System, 58.5 million acres remain undeveloped, wild, and road-free. These last pristine lands are some of the most sought after for development by the logging, mining, oil and gas industries.

In 2001, the Forest Service established a rule to protect the nation's roadless forests from commercial logging and road-building. However, the Bush administration chose to delay the implementation of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule upon taking office.

The Bush administration in late 2003, took the first step toward dismantling the Rule, by exempting the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. The exemption opened the door to more than 300,000 acres of additional clearcuts leaving a footprint of industrial-scale logging and road-building within more than 2.5 million acres of the Tongass. Currently the administration has planned nearly 50 timber sales in areas that were previously protected.

In 2004, the administration announced a plan to overturn the Rule for all National Forests. The administration’s plan will eliminate all national protections afforded these public lands. Our National Forests are already crisscrossed with 386,000 miles of roads—enough to circle the Earth 15 times—and there is a $10 billion backlog on their maintenance.
The Forest Service is currently reviewing the over 1.7 million comments received on the administration’s proposal, the overwhelming majority which oppose their plan and support the original Roadless Rule of 2001 (see http://ourforests.org/risk/comment_numbers.html).  A final rule is expected out later this year.  Meanwhile, the Forest Service is moving forward with plans for dozens of roadless area logging and energy development proposals in Alaska, Oregon, Colorado, Wyoming, Colorado, California, Idaho, and Virginia.  Contact Robert Vandermark, National Environmental Trust, 202/887-8800 or Tiernan Sittenfeld, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, 202/546-9707 for more information.



Forest Service Management Regulations Face Continuing Opposition
In November 2000 the Forest Service published new regulations under the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) to base decisions on how to manage the national forests on science. These regulations emphasize ecological sustainability and species viability, lean toward a greater use of scientific information and review panels, and require identification of roadless areas.

On January 20, 2001, the Bush administration suspended the November 2000 NFMA regulations. In 2005, the administration finalized new regulations that eliminate the most important protection for wildlife in our national forests, and that do away with requirements that ensured the public a meaningful voice in how our national forests are managed.  Forest supervisors will be able to approve logging, oil or gas drilling, and roadbuilding without having to consider the impact on wildlife species or worry about enforceable standards for caps on logging and other important resource protection.  Of special concern is that the new regulation replaces the existing environmental review and administrative appeals process with a cursory opportunity to “object” to forest plans, which would limit citizens’ ability to comment and have any meaningful say in forest management.

The public is allowed to comment on the proposal to exclude forest plan revisions from requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act until March 7.  For more information, please contact Mike Leahy, Defenders of Wildlife, 202/682-9400, mleahy@defenders.org, or see http://www.defenders.org/forests/forest/103.html.

This update was prepared by the Unified Forest Defense Campaign, a coalition of national and regional conservation organizations that includes Defenders of Wildlife, National Resource Defense Council, The Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, Earthjustice, National Environmental Trust, US PIRG, American Lands Alliance, Northwest Old Growth Campaign, National Forest Protection Alliance, Alaska Rainforest Campaign, Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness.