The President's "Healthy Forest Initiative" (HFI) is a multipart
proposal that includes reducing fuels in the forest as well as
amending the Northwest Forest Plan that was approved in 1994 to
protect spotted owls, salmon, and over 1000 species that are imperiled
from decades of rampant clearcutting of our national forests.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/healthyforests/index.html
The HFI in its entirety has not yet been submitted to Congress for
approval, but there are similar proposals being considerd by Congress.
The House Resources Committee passed a bill last month
(http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/press/2002/2002_1008fire.htm) but
this bill has serious problems. It purports to reduce fuels in the
forest but it actually allows logging of old-growth forests while
reducing public input and environmental safeguards. Large old trees
actually help reduce fire danger by providing shade, moisture, and
cooler temperatures. Also, instead of focussing on fuel buildups near
homes and communities where the risk is greatest and where there is
the greatest public consensus on the need for treatment, the House
bill allows increased logging of old growth forests far from
communities, even in areas that could someday be designated
wilderness. The bill also reduces public participation in these
important decisions. http://www.wildfirecentral.org/
http://www.wildfirecentral.org/facts/photouploads/20021016141135-98701.pdf
The Northwest Forest Plan (NFP) amendments also included in the HFI
are a totally unrelated issue. Most of the forests covered by the
Northwest Forest Plan are rainforests and not in need of thinning to
reduce fire danger. These NFP amendments are being pushed through as a
settlement to a meritless lawsuit filed by the northwest timber
industry after they donated more than a million dollars to the
Republican party when GW Bush visited Portland, Oregon in May 2000.
These amendments would reduce protection for threatened and endangered
species and increase logging of old-growth forests.
A much better alternative is to protect the remaining mature and old
growth forest and shift the efforts of the federal agencies toward
restoration, including thinning the millions of acres of young tree
farms that exist everywhere they clearcut in the 1950s through 1980s.
This shift would protect the best habitat, reduce the intense
controversy over logging old forests, simplify agency planning
processes, provide needed jobs for rural communities, and even provide
more timber volume than is currently available from the controversial
practice of old-growth logging because it is always caught up in
lawsuits and protests. http://www.onrc.org/info/srvmng.html
If you want to lead you support to sound forest policy please contact
you Congressional representatives and tell them to:
* reduce fuels near homes and communites and not use the forest fires
as an excuse to increase logging in remote areas;
* protect old growth and roadless areas with enforceable standards;
* ensure a fair public proecess.
* provide enough money to the agencies to get the job done. |
