Garberville, CA - The Bush administration today is expected to unveil their plan to eliminate protection for many rare and sensitive wildlife associated with old growth forests of the Pacific northwest. The plan to eliminate the wildlife provisions was spurred by a recent legal settlement negotiated in secret by the Bush administration and the timber industry. Dismantling the wildlife survey provisions will open up thousands of acres of old-growth forest to industrial logging, place many rare and sensitive species at risk of extinction, and erode the scientific underpinnings of the Northwest Forest Plan.
"The Bush Administration's proposal is a blatant attempt to increase logging of mature and old-growth forests in the Pacific northwest, and runs counter to the intent of the Northwest Forest Plan itself," said Anthony Ambrose of the Environmental Protection Information Center. "The elimination of the survey provisions of the Plan will leave countless species associated with old-growth forests unprotected. We must be concerned about more than just spotted owls and salmon. We owe it to future generations to protect the entire old-growth forest ecosystem. The Forest Service and BLM cannot protect the whole, while destroying all the pieces."
The proposal is an amendment to the Northwest Forest Plan adopted in 1994 to reverse the decline of the Northern spotted owl, Pacific salmon and many other species associated with mature and old-growth forests. The Northwest Forest Plan allows logging of up to one million acres of mature and old-growth forests, and to mitigate for that logging, the plan requires surveys and protection of rare and uncommon wildlife. The surveys are a pre-requisite for logging and have been a source of frustration for the timber industry, but conservation groups point out that if the Bush administration insists on logging the last old-growth, then wildlife surveys are a cost of doing business.
"With the vast majority of the region's old forests gone, these wildlife provisions are the last hope for survival for many species that live in the remaining old forests targeted for logging," said Peter Nelson of the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance.
In a 1999 court decision, the late federal judge William Dwyer said, "Widespread exemptions from the survey requirements would undermine the management strategy on which the [Northwest Forest Plan] depends. The surveys are designed to identify and locate species; if they are not done before logging starts, plants and animals listed in the [Northwest Forest Plan] will face potentially fatal loss of protection. The plan itself recognized the importance of site-specific analysis."
"Curtailing species protection will undermine the very purpose of the Northwest Forest Plan, which is to provide a safety net for wildlife associated with old-growth ecosystems," said Doug Heiken of the Oregon Natural Resources Council. "The intent of the Northwest Forest Plan is to take preventive steps to protect wildlife before they facing extinction. By removing the safety net, the Bush administration could trigger Endangered Species Act requirements for dozens of species. This is exactly the situation that the Northwest Forest Plan was intended to avoid."
"The courts have already ruled that wildlife surveys are an essential part of Northwest Forest Plan and that the plan represents the minimum legal protection for our ancient forests," said Heather Brinton of the Western Environmental Law Center representing several conservation groups in efforts to protect old-growth forests and wildlife. "We don't understand why the Bush administration wants to go back to an unworkable system that was already found to be illegal."
In September 2001, seven prominent Northwest scientists formally requested protection for the remaining mature and old-growth forests: "We are environmental scientists with long experience in the Pacific Northwest and expertise that includes conservation biology, disturbance ecology, geomorphology, zoology, ecosystem science, and the ecology of lichens, fungi, invertebrates, and mollusks. The purpose of this letter is to request that you exercise the adaptive management provisions of the Northwest Forest Plan to protect all remaining late successional/old-growth forests (LSOG) on federal lands in the region covered by the plan," said David A. Perry, Professor (emeritus), Ecosystem Studies and Management Oregon State University, and others in the letter.
"The principle behind the surveys is to `look before you log' but the Bush Administration wants to return to blind cutting of old-growth, breaking the promise that forest management would be sensitive to wildlife and water quality," said Joseph Vaile of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center.
"The Northwest Forest Plan was supposed to protect the beauty and integrity of Oregon's last wild forests that shelter rare species and provide our cleanest waters," said Regna Merritt of Oregon Natural Resources Council. "The Bush administration appears more interested in lining the pockets of campaign contributors."
"The tragic effects of the last several decades of uncontrolled clearcutting of our public forests are well known," said Susan Jane Brown of the Gifford Pinchot Task Force. "Letting the timber barons dominate our public lands was tried in the past and it lead to massive clearcutting, imperiled species, polluted drinking water, and salmon streams clogged with sediment. Scientists discovered many species becoming endangered. It will be a huge step backward if we adopt the Bush administration's plan for indiscriminate clearcutting."
For more information on the Northwest Forest Plan, threats to ancient forests in the region, the proposed amendments to the Plan, and the Bush Administration's backroom deals with the timber industry, see EPIC's National Forests page, www.onrc.org, www.nwoldgrowth.org, and www.ecosystem.org.
