Yearbook Reveals National Forests Are at Risk from Logging, Recreation, Grazing, Mining, Road Building and Land Trades

Conservationists Call for Stronger Forest Protection Regulations

Today, the American Lands Alliance is releasing the first ever National Forest Yearbook that catalogues the threats facing all 154 of the National Forests in the United States. A coalition of over one hundred forest and grassland conservation activists and organizations collaborated to produce the "National Forest Yearbook 1999."

"The Yearbook presents a picture of an enormously valuable National Forest System that provides clean lakes and rivers, productive grasslands and scenic mountains, and abundant fish and wildlife," said Randi Spivak, president of the American Lands Alliance. "But this Yearbook also documents clearly how these assets are at risk."

The Yearbook makes an irrefutable case against the proposed National Forest Management Act (NFMA) regulations now pending that would increase discretion by Forest Service land managers and remove provisions for citizen enforcement. "Instead of more discretion for land managers, we need tougher regulations to protect the National Forests," said Steve Holmer, Campaign Coordinator for American Lands. "Every page of the Yearbook is replete with examples where existing discretion is being abused by local timber sale planners, line officers, and other decision makers."

"Logging in old growth and roadless areas, ORVs out of control, lack of attention to wildlife needs, and countless other environmental abuses are degrading our National Forests," said Spivak. "This Yearbook is not a description of sins from the agency's dark past, but rather a description of current projects, moving forward right now in specific National Forests, at the initiative of local Forest Service land managers or with their permission."

"The importance of Chief Dombeck's Roadless Area Moratorium notwithstanding, environmentally insensitive timber sales threaten a majority of the nation's National Forests," said Brian Vincent, American Lands California Organizer. "Why must lynx habitat, trout streams, old growth forests, and rare plants be at risk from logging on the National Forests that we the public own?" An aspect of the timber sale program that becomes apparent from even a quick reading of the Yearbook is how many timber sales are justified in the name of ecological "restoration," wildlife protection, or "forest health."

"Close on the heals of logging as a threat to the National Forests is recreation," said Harlin Savage, American Lands Colorado Organizer. "This yearbook documents the growing threat that off road vehicles (ORVs), ski resort expansions, and privatization pose to the National Forests."

The issue of budgets, generally, is another recurrent theme in the Yearbook's entries. "The Forest Service budget misserves the public and the land by starving programs that desperately need funding, while promoting a timber sale program that subsidizes irresponsible logging that would not otherwise occur," said Holmer. "As the Administration prepares its FY 2001 budget, we urge that subsidies for harmful timber sales be redirected to beneficial restoration programs."

The Yearbook describes many instances where bad projects have been altered, postponed, or dropped after citizens used their rights of administrative and legal appeal under the current NFMA regulations to insure that however weak existing standards are, they are nonetheless observed. "The Yearbook makes clear that the key to better National Forest management is not to remove provisions for enforcing agency accountability, but rather to shift the focus (and resources) of the agency to landscape restoration rather than commodity production," said Holmer.

"We give Chief Dombeck and many others in the agency great credit for trying to steer the ship the right direction," said Spivak. "But no one realizes better than Chief Dombeck how many perverse incentives influence local Forest Service decision makers to identify logging as the solution to every problem."

"Strong NFMA regulations are needed to insure that Forest Plans address such issues as suitability of lands for grazing, species viability, the impact of invasive species, controls on ORVs, Wilderness recommendations, and others," said Holmer.

"This Yearbook is our first comprehensive report on all of the units in the National Forest System," said Spivak. "The next Yearbook, we hope, will demonstrate significant progress in addressing many of the current threats to these valuable public lands."

The Yearbook also includes contact information for local forest activists and organizations working to protect each National Forest. "There is a remarkable movement in this country to protect our National Forests," said Holmer. "The Yearbook is full of stories of local citizens who take action and make a difference."

The National Forest Yearbook 1999, is available by calling 202/547-9400 or on the world wide web at http://www.americanlands.org/forestweb/yearbook.htm   You can view the entire document or a state by state breakdown.

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