President Clinton issued an executive order that preserves 40 million acres of roadless areas in national forests. |
In an address made while visiting the George Washington National Forest on October 13, President Clinton said he will put forward an initiative to preserve 40 million acres of roadless areas in national forests. Supporters say that Clinton's announcement could allow him to leave a conservation legacy perhaps unrivaled by any president since Theodore Roosevelt.
Clinton disputed criticisms that his proposal would hurt the nation's forest products supply, saying it provides future generations of Americans with a treasure more valuable than timber.
"National forests are more than a source of timber. They are places of renewal of the human spirit and our natural environment," Clinton said.
| SAF's
Comments to USDA Forest Service on Roadless Area |
The forest protection plan would require no congressional action, relying on regulations to be issued by the USDA Forest Service after a detailed environmental review and public comment.
Currently, about 60 million acres of the 192 million acres of national forest are without roads. Clinton's plan would cover 40 million acres of roadless forests comprising areas of 5,000 acres or more. In addition to the 40 million acres, Clinton asked the Forest Service to determine whether 15 million acres still being inventoried also should be protected.
The new policy was not unexpected. In February, the Forest Service placed an 18-month moratorium on road building within most roadless areas so it could evaluate long-term options for managing them.
Some supporters of the initiative suggested that it represents a significant Clinton legacy of conservation.
"This is truly a monumental achievement in conservation and American history," said Ken Rait, director of the Heritage Forests Campaign, a coalition of conservation groups that has campaigned to protect roadless forest areas. "President Clinton should be thanked by us all today for vision to create a natural legacy for future generations of Americans."
The move infuriated a host of stakeholders—from the Republican-led Congress to forest products companies to tiny Western communities that rely on timber harvesting or mining for survival.
Some Republicans are furious that the President appears to be making an end-run around Congress by stopping short of seeking official wilderness status for the newly protected acres. Instead, Clinton is asking the Forest Service to regulate the land in a way that employs most of the same management bans that apply to wilderness areas.
Authority to declare specific acreage as wilderness, in which industrial activity and road building are prohibited, rests with Congress under the 1964 Wilderness Act. But the Forest Service decides where roads may be built in the national forests, in effect giving it authority to create de facto wilderness areas by limiting access.
The forest products industry believes that the more national forests are walled off, the more American companies must look abroad for timber—and in countries where management practices may be substandard. Also, small logging operations, the primary players in the national forests, will be hurt the most, industry officials say. And the industry argues that harvesting helps control the spread of insects and disease.
"Clearly anytime you lock up large areas of federal forests as wilderness you have to consider forest health issues," says Deborah Baker, executive director of the Southern Timber Council, an Atlanta-based trade association representing forest products companies in the Southeast. "Large-scale designations are not appropriate for some areas. I think you can manage areas where you take into account forest health, and still be sensitive to environmental needs."
The Society of American Foresters believes the announcement on national forest roadless areas missed an opportunity to address a more pressing issue.
"President Clinton did not provide the necessary focus on the critical road maintenance backlog," said Bill Banzhaf, SAF's executive vice-president. "The moratorium was originally designed to focus on the issue, and the President's directive does little to address this very serious problem. This unilateral decision to prohibit road building on 40 million acres of national forest negates years of forest planning done with significant citizen input. The President's decision is contrary to this administration's emphasis on locally based collaborative decisions."
Those who back Clinton's plan say roadless areas are needed to protect species and to preserve clean water. Michael Francis, director of The Wilderness Society's national forests program, stressed that keeping the remaining wild forests free of roads is vital to protecting them.
"Roads disrupt wildlife, facilitate logging and other devastating activities that degrade our pristine areas," Francis said. "While some might express concern about how this directive impacts the timber industry, we must realize that merely 3 percent of national forest wildlands considered suitable for timber harvesting are affected by this decision."
Not only is the President winning plaudits from the environmental community, but he is also possibly gaining a potent issue for Vice-President Al Gore in the 2000 presidential campaign. With the announcement, the President could help Gore in his primary campaign against Bill Bradley, who has made inroads with the environmental community.
"At its root, this tree issue is about politics. We have a window of opportunity, and we're using Bradley's campaign for a hook to get the White House to pay attention to our issue," says Andy Stahl, director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics in Eugene, Oregon.
The announcement is a reflection of the evolving role of national forests. The timber harvest of national forests has declined by about 70 percent over the past decade—from approximately 12 billion board feet in 1989 to 3.4 billion today, according to the Forest Service. Meanwhile, recreational visits have increased from 560 million in 1980 to 860 million in 1996. And of the $134 billion that the forests contribute to the nation's economy, the Forest Service reports $111 billion comes from recreation.
The Forest Service aims to release the proposed rule this spring and, following public input, adopt a final rule in late 2000. By issuing the new policy as an executive order, the White House is hoping that the next president will accept it. But in recent years, the Republican Congress has proved itself adept at thwarting the administration's environmental policy, using oversight and appropriations authority to fund programs and policies it deems appropriate.
To see SAF's position statement on roads in national forests, visit the SAF website at http://www.safnet.org/policy/psst/roadspos.htm.