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Environmental coalition
starts old-growth effort
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PORTLAND, ORE - 10/16/01 -- A
coalition of environmentalists said Monday that they are organizing their
largest-ever campaign to halt old-growth logging on federal land.
Joe Keating, spokesman for the Oregon chapter of the Sierra Club, said public
attitudes and the Northwest economy have significantly changed since the battle
over ancient trees took shape in the late 1980s.
Keating said the economy has moved toward high-tech and away from its
dependence on timber and natural resources, while new scientific research
repeatedly demonstrates the link between healthy old-growth forests and
watersheds vital to urban and rural areas alike.
Keating also said a poll commissioned by environmental groups showed broad
public support for preserving forests and their wildlife habitat.
But he said the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management are
considering more than 80 timber sales involving old-growth trees as a way to
meet logging goals set under the Northwest Forest Plan, the compromise reached
between the timber industry and the Clinton administration in 1993.
Those goals have become outdated and unrealistic, Keating said, as mills have
nearly eliminated their reliance on old-growth timber and moved to smaller
trees.
He noted that retailers, such as Home Depot and Golden State Lumber, are
phasing out wood products made with old-growth timber, further reducing demand.
"The economics of the recreation value alone for preserving old growth
far exceed the value of logging these ancient trees," Keating said.
Susan Jane Brown of the Gifford Pinchot Task Force, a Washington state
conservation group, said eliminating old-growth sales would also reduce and even
eliminate the large number of lawsuits filed to protect stands of trees older
than 80 years.
But timber industry officials were quick to criticize the campaign, saying
many Northwest mills still need old growth to keep operating and support rural
towns.
Their plan "is going to be devastating to the communities," said
Chris West of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber group.
The coalition of 13 environmental groups is seeking permanent protection for
old-growth stands. The Olympian Copyright 2001 In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. [Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml] |