Copyright 2000 The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta
Journal and Constitution
October 19, 2000, Thursday, Home Edition
SECTION: Editorial; Pg. 22A
LENGTH: 376 words
HEADLINE:
Clinton can plant a legacy in forests
BYLINE: Staff
SOURCE: CONSTITUTION
BODY:
President Teddy Roosevelt is remembered for saving America's irreplaceable
wild lands. If President Bill Clinton is looking for a legacy in his final days
in office, he has a chance to be remembered for saving what's left of the
nation's roadless areas.
A year ago, the president
proposed a far-reaching initiative to bar new roads and logging in
roadless areas. As usual, commercial timber interests and
Republican conservatives in Congress opposed it. GOP presidential candidate
George W. Bush even declared that he'd try to reverse it if elected.
Fortunately, the initiative doesn't require legislation, only a new Forest
Service regulation. But one key issue will be decided in the next few weeks.
Will the regulation halt logging as well as new roads? Despite hearings in which
80 percent of the comments supported a ban on both, the Forest Service wants to
limit the ban to just new roads.
One likely compromise is to outlaw
commercial logging but allow so-called " stewardship" logging. That's a phony
exception the president ought to reject. Stewardship logging is defined as
cutting trees for forest management purposes instead of commercial sales. The
exception has been so abused by Forest Service managers that 60 percent of all
cuts are categorized as stewardship logging. Clear-cutting, for example, has
been allowed for the " stewardship" purpose of protecting deer --- hardly a
threatened species.
In Georgia and other Southeastern states where
roadless areas are more fragmented and smaller than in other parts of the
country, enforcing an honest logging ban is vital. Most regional roadless areas
range from 1,000 to 5,000 acres in size. Given modern timbering techniques, they
can be cut without any additional road-building.
It's not just declining
wildlife and rare fish that are dependent on forest preservation in Georgia; so
is the quality of drinking water sources that arise in the Chattahoochee
National Forest.
The president should stick to the promise he made a
year ago and guarantee an end to all logging in roadless areas. Clinton will
soon have little control over how long the nation's economic health lasts, but
he can guarantee the protection of wild forest lands long after he leaves the
Oval Office.
GRAPHIC: Photo
In Southeastern states,
enforcing a logging ban is vital to protect wildlife and water quality. / CHRIS
BURRITT / Staff
LOAD-DATE: October 19, 2000
