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From: Western Ancient Forest Campaign <wafcdc@igc.apc.org>
Subject: Sen. Craig's "Forest Health" to Undermine Law
WESTERN ANCIENT FOREST CAMPAIGN
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
February 2, 1994 John Fitzgerald, 202/939-3324
5:30 p.m. Samantha Mace, 509/527-0471
Senator Craig Plans Bill to Shield Logging from
the Law
Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) is planning to introduce a bill in
the Senate as early as Friday to shield "salvage" logging and
other timber management activities from most scientific analysis,
public review and citizen appeal procedures, according to staff of
the Western Ancient Forest Campaign in eastern Washington State
and Washington, D.C.
"By curtailing the normal review process, this bill would
hide threats to human health, economic losses to communities,
destruction of prime habitat for salmon, trout and other sensitive
species in Idaho and many other states," said John Fitzgerald, an
attorney who is Executive Director of the Western Ancient Forest
Campaign (WAFC).
"A recent study by the U.S. Geological Survey in Idaho
concluded that in order to reduce the already significant exposure
of many people in Idaho to toxic heavy metals such as lead and
cadmium associated with mining operations, it was necessary to
limit nutrient run-off from 'roads, agriculture, and river bank
erosion' -- precisely the kind of run off that results from forest
roads and most salvage logging," said Fitzgerald. "Anywhere there
are mine tailings downstream from new forest roads and clear cuts,
the same result may follow."
"Some of the worst heavy metal contamination in the world
occurs in Idaho downstream from the National Forests that are
vulnerable to Larry Craig's bill," said John Osborn, physician and
President of the Inland Empire Public Lands Council in Spokane,
Washington.
Sen. Craig, who chairs subcommittees of two different Senate
committees with jurisdiction over national forests, hopes to build
support for rapid enactment of such a bill with little in the way
of public hearings on the practical effect of the bill, which he
hopes to report from Committee as early as February.
The possible impacts of the legislation present many concerns
for conservation groups. Sen. Craig's proposed Forest Health
Protection and Restoration Act would require the U.S. Forest
Service and Bureau of Land Management to identify "forest health
emergency" and "high risk" areas on federal forest lands that have
been effected by fire, insects, or disease. The timber industry
and others will be allowed to petition the Secretaries of Interior
or Agriculture to designate such areas for "forest health
projects." Designated "emergency" or "high risk" areas will then
be open to logging, spraying, and other activities without the
normal provisions for scientific review, consideration of more
effective and less harmful alternatives and citizen appeal as
guaranteed under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
The bill would override the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by
requiring automatic approval of projects if the expert wildlife
agencies had not finished their review of the effects on
endangered species within one month. Furthermore another section
of the draft bill implies that only express prohibitions on such
activity in law would protect areas outside of wilderness or
recommended wilderness. Since such express prohibitions are rare,
that could put many sensitive areas at risk.
"Sen. Craig's bill assumes a 'crisis' of forest health with
neither a definition nor any supporting evidence of the crisis or
the cure," said Fitzgerald. "It would make designations and some
forest management actions mandatory without defining 'forest
health'. Furthermore, it would change the judicial review process
and limit the time and location under which review could take
place."
"Additionally, there were some fires in the West last summer
that are thought by the agency to be the result of arson," said
Fitzgerald. "To make salvage sales at bargain-basement rates
nearly mandatory in such instances invites future abuses."
"Any proposal that advances logging in roadless areas and
newly-burned forests is driven by concern for the real forest
health problems facing our public lands. The bill's sole purpose
is to increase the cut level on public lands already severely
degraded by overlogging, excessive road building, pesticide
spraying and other mismanagement," said Samantha Mace, WAFC's
Eastside Field Coordinator. "Overlogging is the primary cause of
forest health problems
-- it is not the cure," Mace added.
Scientists have come forward in recent months to urge the
U.S. Forest Service and other land management agencies to reject
proposals for massive salvage logging and thinning projects on
public forest lands. In a recent letter to President Clinton,
five aquatic scientists, including authors of a study of
Intermountain forest ecosystems commission by Congress, wrote:
"We know of no scientific reason to engage in salvage logging or
road building in burned areas, and we know of many sound reasons
not to."
"These forests are suffering from a century of mismanagement
that has resulted in devastated watersheds, dwindling salmon runs,
increased soil erosion, and wildlife habitat destruction. We do
not need to add human health and fishing and recreation jobs to
the casualty list," said Fitzgerald. "While the increased risk of
fire is a concern, salvage logging and thinning are not proven to
decrease the chance of fire. In fact, fires often start in piles
of slash left in recently logged areas."
"The first step toward improving the health of our nation's
forests would be to protect remaining roadless areas, cut the
forest road budget and use the savings to put people to work in
these communities restoring watersheds," Fitzgerald said.
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