Forest Service takes right steps

Important changes are happening in our region's national forests. For the first time in more than 20 years the U.S. Forest Service is conducting a major overhaul of the way publicly owned forests are managed. New scientific findings, changes in demographics across the west and a recent growth in the number of uncontrolled wildfires offer a clear case for modernizing the outdated policies in place today.

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Some more extreme environmental groups claim the new changes are little more than a payout to campaign contributors and timber companies. In a June 16 guest column, Rodger Schlickeisen of Defenders of Wildlife argued that the changes proposed by the Forest Service would threaten wildlife and limit public participation in the forest management process. A balanced review of the facts shows a different story.

After an extensive two-year public comment and review process the Forest Service will soon issue new rules that will help streamline the planning process required by the 1976 National Forest Management Act. Under current rules, it can cost millions and take years to complete a management plan for a national forest, which is required to be updated every 15 years. In one example, the Forest Service spent nine years and $13 million on the required update for managing the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.

Similar situations in public forests across the nation are diverting vital resources away from critical management activities such as lowering the risk of wildfire around communities and enhancing critical habitat for threatened and endangered species. Without changes to current rules, the situation will only get worse. Forest Service analysis anticipates cost increases of 30 percent or more if rules adopted in 2000 stay in place.

The new rules fully incorporate essential principles of forest management. Encouraging sustainability, strengthening public participation and adhering to the best scientific analysis are all required in the new planning process. What is limited is costly and time consuming legal delay tactics used by many overzealous environmental groups to block needed forest management activities. Instead, community outreach is enhanced, visibility of the planning process is improved and forest service scientists and managers are given the tools they need to effectively develop a comprehensive plan for managing our national forests.

Some groups also make excessive claims about increases in old-growth timber harvest on federal forestland. The new rules will do little to increase timber harvests. What they will do is make the process of managing federal forests more flexible and effective. The rules in place today are based largely on science from 20 years ago. The proposed changes will allow adaptive management, which grants Forest Service scientists the ability to change forest practices based on the latest knowledge about forest health.

In some cases this will include increased timber harvest, but little, if any will be old growth. Most of the mills that could handle large logs are now out of business. Instead, the new rules will allow the Forest Service to thin overgrown second-growth forests, salvage wood from burned areas, protect trees threatened by disease and insects and reduce fire threats around rural communities.

Updates to the National Forest Management Act and proactive efforts to improve forest health are a good step in the right direction for the nation's forests. Change will not come overnight. It will take many years to lower the threat of wildfire on the estimated 190 million acres of forest and rangeland at high risk. But we are finally moving in the right direction. By addressing forest health issues in a systematic and scientific process, we can restore our valuable renewable resource to a healthy, vibrant state.

Eric Montague directs the Center for Environmental Policy, a project of Washington Policy Center, an independent, 501(c)(3) research and education organization; www.washingtonpolicy.org

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