Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 11, 2001)
Clinton forest plan inspires praise, criticism ■The President’s new protection plan will safeguard forest roads, but critics say not soon enough By Lisa Toth Oregon Daily Emerald Members of OSPIRG said a re cent road management policy ap proved by the Clinton Adminstra tion is a step in the right direction to protect national forest land, but the policy still has some weakness es. The policy will protect forest land in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, and members of OSPIRG, the Oregon student chapter of the national Public Interest Research Group, have been actively lobby ing for the forest’s protection since the beginning of the school year. The policy, intended to halt commercial logging and prohibit road construction on 49.2 million acres of timber, was approved Jan. 4 by Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck. Since then, there have been conflicting reactions from OSPIRG members and logging company representatives. The original plan, begun in Jan uary 1998, caused concern from PIRG because it did not effectively address road building in the na tional forests. OSPIRG members said the new policy is a success, but it still has a few loopholes. “It is the largest wilderness pro tection act since the national parks were set aside in 1907,” OSPIRG campus organizer Jessica Smetana said. OSPIRG, which handles issues involving the environment, public safety and health, has focused at tention on educating students at the University about the National Heritage Forests Campaign through distributing information and showing movies. “I hope people become more aware of the issue of the forest plan,” said Venus Killen, OSPIRG’s forest project coordinator for the National Heritage Forests Cam paign. “[Students] might want to contribute to preserving the forests.” U.S. PIRG member Tiernan Sit tenfeld said the U.S. Forest Service received 1.5 million letters, faxes and e-mails from the public during the course of this summer’s nine week public comment period re garding the original plan. Ninety five percent of those comments supported full protection for road less areas on national forest lands. OSPIRG members joined the na tional mission when they flooded the White House switchboard in October to make the Clinton ad ministration aware that PIRG members wanted full protection of all forests under the policy. They spent a day outside the EMU with cell phones and encouraged pass ing students to place a call to the switchboard. Killen, a freshman environmen tal studies and sociology major, said her main criticism is that the Tongass National Forest won’t be fully protected until 2004. “We would like [the policy] to include the Tongass right away and to define stewardship log ging,” Killen said. Sittenfeld said stewardship log ging, the practice of cutting trees for forest health reasons, is respon sible for two-thirds of the timber cut from the national forests. The Boise Cascade Corporation, a lumber company in Idaho, owns more than 2 million acres of tim berland that supports its manufac turing operations. Boise Cascade Spokesman Mike Moser said the policy will limit the company’s amount of timber harvesting. “The U.S. Forest Service were rule-making a process that was predetermined,” Moser said. “It was implemented too fast and without proper analysis, and it was totally one-sided.” Moser said the U.S. Forest Ser vice ignored requests that more time be spent investigating and more information be gathered about the policy before it was ap proved. While the policy doesn’t allow road building, Moser said roads already exist in roadless ar eas. He also said evidence shows forests are not healthy but are over grown. “More aggressive management and thinning is necessary to pre vent devastating forest fires — like the fire this summer — and this plan won’t allow this to happen,” Moser said. Boise Cascade, coalition part ners and other Northwestern lum ber companies believe the Clinton Administration has gone beyond its authority. Moser said the ad ministration is taking actions that should be made by the U.S. Con gress. The final record of Clinton’s de cision is expected later this month. McDonald continued from page 1A “There might be a time when a person could roam between three venues and see on video screens what’s happening on the other stages,” he said. “The loss of this theater would be the return of the theater. It was originally construct ed as a vaudeville theater.” The 75-year-old McDonald The atre was originally the city’s grand theater. It is a Eugene historic land mark and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Its exot ic design, high ceilings and spa cious lobby are emblematic of the colorful architecture of the Roaring ’20s. Regal Cinemas has operated the theater since 1993 and runs two other Eugene theaters, including Cinema World 8 near the Valley River Center and Movieland 6 in West Eugene. Regal has been rapidly expand ing during the past few years but has recently experienced financial trouble and has racked up signifi cant debt. Michael Lamont, owner of the Bijou Art Cinema, said he recalled the McDonald Theatre’s recent ef fort to change operation with a new strategy. “A year or so ago, they toyed with the idea of showing mature, arty-type of films,” Lamont said. But that strategy was unsuccess ful. “(The McDonald Theatre) was identified as an under-performing location and was targeted for clo sure,” Regal spokesman Dick West erling said. “The industry is over screened as a whole, and as a part of our reconstruction, we’re re viewing theaters on a case-by-case and market-by-market basis.” Eugene’s other Regal theaters have been performing relatively well and aren’t likely to close in the near future, Westerling said. tber will be to st Will be included in the policy; ewardsmp purposes, f # )lic safety and resource protection. Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service about the same number as in 1950. Source U.S. Department of Agriculture’* ' UNIVERSITY OF OREGON BOOKSTORE Black & white and READ all over campus. Oregon Daily Emerald
