National Forest Timber Sales: A Forest Service
Quandary
by Caroline Byrd
In our last Frontline we reported on two environmentally damaging timber
sales that WOC appealed: the Upper Greys River on the Bridger-Teton National
Forest and the Cold Springs on the Bighorn National Forest. Remarkably,
we won both appeals. These victories are particularly significant because,
by ruling in our favor, the Forest Service itself admits that it needs
to do a better job of analyzing the environmental effects of timber sales.
Upper Greys River
For the Upper Greys River Timber Sale, the Forest Service found that its
own biological assessment of the implications of the timber sale on wildlife
and fish was inadequate and that it did not know enough about the ramifications
of the sale to conclude that it would have "no significant impact" on sensitive
wildlife and water quality.
The appeal decision also states that the Bridger-Teton National Forest
did not adequately address the cumulative effects of the sale on water
quality and threatened, endangered and sensitive species. In an amazing
display of candor, the decision states, "the EA [Environmental Assessment]
attempts to justify the timber sale rather than objectively discuss the
issues."
Cold Springs
For the Cold Springs Timber Sale, the Forest Service agreed with our argument
that the sale violated the Forest’s standards for wildlife habitat. The
agency also agreed that the Bighorn National Forest’s analysis of the effects
of the sale on wildlife was inadequate.
A Damning Report
Further support for our arguments that the Forest Service is not doing
a good enough job in understanding and explaining the damaging results
of timber sales comes from yet another surprising internal source. In January,
the U.S. Department of Agriculture (of which the Forest Service is part)
Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report that is highly critical
of the Forest Service’s timber sale environmental assessments. The report
can be found on the Web at http://www.usda.gov/oig/
auditrpt/auditrpt.htm
According to the OIG, the Forest Service is not performing adequate
research and analyses; the agency’s studies are full of deficiencies, omissions
and faulty descriptions; and the agency permits environmentally damaging
timber sales and other activities in violation of environmental laws.
Another troubling finding of the OIG report is that the Forest Service
does not follow through on the "mitigation" measures that it includes in
timber sale analyses, purportedly to limit environmental damage. In other
words, when the Forest Service claims that it will take action to prevent
or lessen environmental damage by restoring watershed health, closing roads
or protecting wildlife habitat, it doesn’t necessarily make good on its
promise.
We have consistently opposed the Forest Service’s habit of linking watershed
restoration with timber sales for exactly this reason. For the Upper Greys,
Caribou, Double Cabin, Sunlight and now the proposed Sourdough Timber Sale,
the Forest Service has promised that it will offset the damaging effects
of the timber sales’ clearcuts and roads, even though it won’t guarantee
that it will keep its promise and may not have the funding to implement
watershed restoration projects. The OIG’s report documents just how hollow
these promises can be.
Protecting Roadless Areas
Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck’s recent release of the agency’s "temporary
suspension of road construction in unroaded areas" is also heartening.
(See the Spring 1998 issue of Frontline.) The suspension of road building
in unroaded areas of our National Forests will go a long way toward protecting
our watersheds, wildlife and primitive recreation opportunities and restoring
ecosystem health.
Below-Cost Timber Sales
Finally, according to a recent U.S. General Accounting Office report, National
Forests lose millions of taxpayers’ dollars on their timber program. Wyoming’s
National Forests have a dismal record of spending more money on timber
sale preparation and administration than they bring in total receipts.
From 1995 to 1997, the Bighorn National Forest lost $135,352, the Medicine
Bow lost $3,186,092, the Shoshone lost $244,739 and the Bridger-Teton lost
$215,376. Wyoming’s national forests squandered a total of $3,781,559 in
taxpayers’ dollars to facilitate timber sale damage to wildlife, water
quality, fish, roadless areas and old-growth forests.
Get the Message?
The Forest Service is being told by organizations like WOC, by upper
levels in the Department of Agriculture and by the Chief of the Forest
Service himself that the agency must do a better job of protecting the
environment. Perhaps, if this message keeps being repeated from all sides,
National Forest decisionmakers will realize that the time has come to stop
treating our nation’s public lands as commodity warehouses and to start
the important work of restoring and protecting the biodiversity, water
quality and wildness of our forests. |
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