The USDA Forest Service has unveiled a nearly final version of President Clinton's plan to ban roads in roadless national forests. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman will make a final determination on the plan in December.
"Our national forests are a precious national environmental treasure that we must preserve for future generations," said Glickman. "In making my final determination, I will carefully consider the Forest Service's recommendation and the 1.6 million written and oral comments submitted by interested Americans."
The Forest Service's preferred plan, one of several alternatives contained in a final environmental impact statement, would prohibit most road construction and reconstruction on 49.2 million acres of inventoried roadless areas, increasing to 58.5 million acres in April 2004 when the Tongass National Forest would be included. It would prohibit commercial harvesting except for defined stewardship purposes in these same areas.
Agency officials altered the plan after receiving more than 1.6 million public comments last spring and summer. The previous version did not include the Tongass and applied to 43 million acres of roadless areas.
The Society of American Foresters has opposed the administration's roadless area plan from its inception. SAF opposes nationwide prohibition on building roads as well as other nationwide prohibitions on management activities that could be applied through the roadless area plan. SAF believes that decisions about the status of roadless areas should be made through the forest planning process at the local level. A decision that affects all roadless areas through one national decision cannot address the unique forest conditions of each roadless area, according to SAF.
The latest version of the roadless area plan is still not what's best for national forests, says Bill Banzhaf, executive vice-president of SAF.
"The banning of commercial timber harvesting in roadless areas of national forests is not good for the forests," says Banzhaf. "It removes a necessary tool and restricts management that may be necessary for the health of this nation's forests. The Forest Service doesn't have to look back beyond last summer's catastrophic wildfire season to see the need for active forest management."
Banzhaf's comments opposing the plan were cited in a news story by United Press International that ran on November 20. Associated Press cited similar remarks by Michael Goergen, SAF's director of forest policy, on November 18.
The Society is also disappointed with the inclusion of the Tongass National Forest in the latest version of the roadless area plan because the Tongass has a revised management plan that was approved in 1999.
"We are concerned about the future inclusion in the roadless rule of the Tongass National Forest," says Banzhaf. "This reflects an administration that does not have faith in decisions made by local management professionals."
Republicans in Congress are also vehemently opposed to the plan. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) criticized the agency for curtailing public involvement.
"First the administration shut the states out of this process," says Goodlatte. "Now it is denying all citizens their right to appeal. This arrogant disregard of fair process is just plain wrong, and it is driving a deep wedge between Washington and local communities."
Forest activists have supported a road ban because they believe the pathways increase erosion and damage wildlife habitat. Although the envrionmental community is generally supportive of the latest version of the plan, some are calling for a more restrictive policy in the version to be announced in December.
"We are hopeful that in his final analysis, President Clinton will strengthen the final proposal by restricting, in his plan, potentially damaging 'stewardship' logging activities that would be allowed under the Forest Service proposal, and by according immediate protection from logging and road building for the wild areas in the Tongass Rainforest," says Anne Martin, field director for the American Lands Alliance.
For a copy of SAF's comments to the Forest Service about the roadless area proposal, visit the SAF website at http://www.safnet.org/policy/psst/roadless71400.htm.
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