Copyright 2000 The Seattle Times Company
The
Seattle Times
November 14, 2000, Tuesday Second Edition
SECTION: ROP ZONE; News; Pg. A8
LENGTH: 507 words
HEADLINE:
Forest Service wants logging ban in roadless national forest areas
BYLINE: Craig Welch
BODY:
By Craig Welch
Seattle Times staff reporter
The Clinton
administration wants to ban all commercial logging on nearly 60 million acres of
roadless forest land, including parts of the country's largest forest, Alaska's
Tongass National Forest.
Following public comment from 1.1 million
people, the Forest Service yesterday announced plans to toughen environmental
protections proposed under its controversial roadless initiative.
The
latest announcement not only would prohibit new roads in so-called "inventoried"
roadless areas of 5,000 acres or greater, but also would--as
conservation groups requested--ban timber harvests. While the earlier road ban
would have had the practical effect of making logging less likely, the newest
proposal outright condemns the practice. The new proposal also promises to
extend those protections to the Tongass beginning in April 2004, rather than
just considering those protections in four years.
While a final rule
based on yesterday's announcement will be issued sometime after Dec. 18, many
conservation groups already were claiming victory.
"This is a very
significant thing," said John Owen, of the Washington Wildlife Coalition. "I'm
surprised: We don't have a record of this agency listening to the public, but
this thing polls better than either presidential candidate."
Timber-industry groups, meanwhile, expressed exasperation that a plan
they despise got stronger.
"This region, more than any other in the
nation, has borne the brunt of the failed Clinton-Gore forest policies," said
Chris West, executive vice president of the American Forest Resource Council.
"We can grow trees better here than anywhere else in the U.S. Instead,
what we see is our dependence on foreign forests growing from 20 percent in 1993
to 40 percent today."
In Washington and Oregon, the controversial plan
essentially maintains the status quo.
While it would ban roads on nearly
4 million acres in the region, road construction already was banned under forest
plans on more than half that land. On the remaining portions, only 12 miles of
road was planned for construction. About 8 million board feet of timber was
proposed for sale.
"We've gone through a lot of changes around here in
recent years," said Patty Burel, spokeswoman for the Forest Service's regional
headquarters, which covers Oregon and Washington. "It's just enhancing the way
we've already been doing business."
In the 1.37-million-acre Gifford
Pinchot National Forest, for example, the proposal would permanently protect
213,000 acres. Of those, only 23,000 were "timber suitable," said forest
spokesman Tom Knappenberger. Even so, "we haven't sold a roadless timber sale in
quite some time," he said.
In the Tongass, however, as much as 100
million board feet of timber is cut in roadless areas each year. Conservation
groups were disappointed new protections would be postponed for four years.
Craig Welch's phone message number is 206-464-2093. His e-mail
address is cwelch@seattletimes.com.
LOAD-DATE: December 4, 2000
