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’*
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