Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1978)
Wilderness study draws criticism By JACK DESMOND Of the Emerald Boulder Creek, 35 miles to the east of Roseburg, lies in a large, low-elevation valley in the Ump qua National Forest containing stands of old-growth Douglas fir. The valley, along with 172 other roadless areas in Oregon, is cur rently a center of controversy pit ting three major groups against each other. The timber industry wants to log Boulder Creek be cause the valley is one of the last low-elevation, uncut forests. For the same reasons, conser vationists hope to protect the val ley from cutting. The Forest Ser vice must gingerly plod between both camps, though it has already tentatively announced that it wants to log the area. The roadless areas of Oregon and 1,700 areas nationwide are currently being evaluated for wil derness designation by the Forest Service in a study termed RARE II (Roadless Area Review and Evaluation). It is the second at tempt by the Forest Service to re solve the future of roadless areas. When RARE II was publicly is sued June 15, it listed 13 alterna tives for allocation of the 3.1 mill ion acres of roadless area in Oregon. The alternatives ranged from allocating all roadless areas to timber production, to designat ing all roadless areas as wilder ness. Conservationists soon bitterly attacked the document as being biased in favor of the timber indus try, as only three of the alterna tives allocated more than 20 per cent of the areas to wilderness. Randall O’Toole of OSPIRG re sponded to the document by de veloping an economical model of roadless areas. At a recent press conference at the University, O'Toole issued an OSPIRG report entitled An Economic View of RARF II O'Toole, citing economics, stated that “between 2.4 million and all 3.1 million acres of Forest Service roadless areas in Oregon should be protected." He was able to arrive at those figures by comparing the annual value of timber that could be ex tracted against the annual costs of building roads and extra logging costs for each roadless area. He further assigned a value of $5 for each visitor day use of the road less areas. “Wilderness has always been free because there was lots of it. Now it's in short supply,” noted O'Toole. “We have to be willing to pay for wilderness, though I'm not saying the Forest Service should start charging for wilderness." He explained that there was very little research relating to the value of primitive recreation. The Willamette National Forest had tentatively set a figure of $13 per visitor for day use in wilderness areas and $6 a day in roadless areas. O’Toole chose $5 as a value. Through a convoluted mathematical process, which makes the study rather difficult to understand, he projected a benefit-cost ratio. Some notable projections were: • Boulder Creek — 1.6; that is, the Forest Service would annually receive $1.60 for each dollar in vested in development • Waldo Lake — .3; the Forest Service receiving only 30 cents for each dollar annually invested. Overall, the study indicated only 47 of the 173 roadless areas had a benefit-cost ratio greater than one-to-one. If O'Toole had not as signed a $5 visitor-day use value, only 800,000 acres would be economically unfeasible. How ever, he maintained that primitive recreation use was growing by 10 percent a year in contrast to timber demand which was only growing by 2 percent. The day after the report was is sued, the Eugene Register-Guard editorialized that most areas worthy of wilderness in Oregon had already been so designated Emerald graphic and that the Forest Service should open up most of the roadless areas. The Register-Guard also mentioned that the timber industry would not idly sit by and let O'Toole’s study become gospel for saving all of the roadless areas. Of the three timber industry people approached by the Emerald, only one felt confident in commenting upon the study. “Randy (O'Toole) has built the best possible case he could to save all roadless areas from his point of view,'’ replied Dave Cox of industrial Forests Association. 4 Hour Photofinishing Kodak Kodacolor II In by 10 am Out by 2 pm Have that roll of film processed today. 126 size . 110 size. 35mm size ... pi^o film developing 210 230 250 per print* per print* per print* OREGON PHOTO LAB 1231 Alder Street Phone 485-0661 2538 Willamette Phone 485-6898 “But, I think using different figures, the outcome might change greatly.’’ Cox said he thought O’Toole’s statistic that one million board feet of timber supports only two jobs was wrong and said the figure would be 8-10 jobs. Contacted later, O'Toole admit ted that Cox was correct. How ever, O’Toole maintained that the new figures did not substantially change the benefit-cost ratios of most roadless areas. Cox further claimed that O'Toole was attributing all of the road-building costs to timber and discounting the value of the road for recreational use. “The Forest Service always re quires the timber industry to build roads of a much higher quality than necessary for hauling timber," Cox added. “That has al ways been a bone of contention to the timber industry.” But O'Toole said he had used only road-building costs neces sary for timber transportation. Roger Fight of the Forest Ser vice said he had not studied the document enough to comment. Asked what he thought the im pact of O'Toole’s study might be, Cox replied, “I really don’t know what impact it will have. It will de pend on the Forest Service study (an economic study of selected roadless areas)." ‘‘I don’t want to make any pre dictions because we’ve done these analyses since January 1977,” O’Toole said. ‘The timber industry has never uttered a re sponse. By hoping not to give it credence, people will forget about it. I could be wrong, but they haven’t said anything yet,” Berg's COMPLETE TENNIS & RACQUETBALL DEPARTMENT CLOSEOUTS! —''J M 4k ALL Tennis & Racquetball equipment and accessories are being closed out. Everything goes—These departments are closing permanently! Here are savings examples . . . ALL TENNIS &' RACQUETBALL ACCESSORIES1 20% OFF! All sales final—be there early for best selection—everything goes! We’re open every day but Sunday, 10 to 6. Shop Friday night until 9:00 p.m. Visa & Master Charge Welcome! SPORT SHOP Corner of 11th A Mill • 343-0013
