Just news
SEPTEMBER
USED BOOK
DRIVE
Ancient Forest Awareness Week
AND
The U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the
timber industry advocate liquidating the ancient forests and
replacing them with industrial-type tree farms
B Y
B R U C E
A M S B A R Y
great deal of attention has been given
recently to the issue of protecting
Oregon’s “ancient forests.” At issue is the
fate of the remnants of the greatest coniferous
forest on earth. This ancient forest once
blanketed 51,000 square miles of the Pacific
Northwest. Today over 90% of this vast
forest has been logged!
Oregon is at a crossroad. One path leads
to a bright future where all of our remaining
ancient forests are passed on fully intact to
future generations. It is a future with a
diverse state economy, less vulnerable to the
periodic swings faced by any single industry.
We see an economy where we have learned
that the ancient forests best serve our long
term economic needs by remaining standing
than reduced to board footage, pulp and chips.
Following the other path we see a future in
which the big, old trees remaining will be in
isolated and ecologically indefensible stands,
subject to threats from fire, wind and disease,
without the prospect of mature timber stands
evolving into old growth stands to replace
them! The forests and forest industry we will
be leaving to future generations will bear
absolutely no resemblance to what we know
today. The vast majority of big, old trees will
be forever gone, the ecosystem within which
these trees evolved utterly destroyed. The
timber industry will employ far fewer people
than it does now, and the potential economic
gains to the state from intact ancient forest
ecosystems will be forever destroyed.
Why should you, as a member of the
lesbian and gay community, care about the
fate of the remaining ancient forest? Oregon
has not developed its sizable lesbian and gay
community because of the great urban
amenities and active night life it offers, a key
draw to many of the lesbian and gay meccas
of this country. Many of us in the gay and
lesbian community choose to live in Oregon
because of the area’s high quality natural
environment and the opportunities it provides
for recreational and spiritual pursuits.
These attributes, which brought many of
us to Oregon, are facing a dire threat. In 1986
the Oregon State Parks and Recreation
Division noted that within 20 years the
available opportunities for backcountry
recreation opportunities would be
dramatically reduced. The Wilderness
Society noted in a study released last fall that
within 15 years nearly half of the unprotected
roadless areas in Oregon and Washington will
be opened by roads constructed for logging
purposes!
A
In some national forests the loss is even
more rapid and dramatic. In the Umpqua
National Forest 87% of the unprotected
roadless areas will be lost within 15 years. In
the Siskiyou National Forest (an area being
proposed for conversion to national park
status) 96% of these areas will be lost within
15 years.
The U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land
Management, and the timber industry
advocate the “liquidation” of the remaining
ancient forests, replacing them with industrial-
type tree farms. Even the Forest Service’s
own researchers and scientists question the
value of this management strategy as a viable
long-term approach to forestry. This
approach is referred to as “multiple use,”
where forest is managed to meet the needs of
the entire range of forest users. Unfortunately
“multiple use” has become a euphemism for
clear-cutting.
Timber industry spokespeople claim that
when logging is excluded from an area that
the area is reduced to a single use. This
ignores the fact that protected areas meet ALL
of the needs of multiple use except logging.
Logging causes damage, often irreparable, to
wildlife and fish habitat, plant diversity, clean
water and air, soil conservation, recreation
and sightseeing.
Those who support the “liquidation” of the
ancient forest call the conservation commu
nity radical for its “hard-line” stand on ancient
forest protection. One of the largest contribu
ting factors to the global problems we are
facing is the destruction of forest ecosystems.
With the planetary ecosystem under enormous
stress is it really such a radical notion to pro
tect the remnant 10% of the Pacific North
west’s ancient forests?
Many people in the Northwest tend to
point with indignation at the extinction of
species and the destruction of tropical rain
forests in third world countries. Many of
these same people defend the destruction of
the temperate rain forest and extinction of the
spotted owl (and the other species dependent
on ancient forest habitat, whose health the owl
indicates) in our own back yard. How we
treat the forests under our care will give us
some indication of the fate of other forest
ecosystems around the globe.
During September the Oregon Ancient
Forest Alliance will sponsor events to help the
public better understand the conservation
community’s vision of Oregon’s ecologic and
economic future. For more information or to
volunteer, contact the Ancient Forest
Awareness Week office at 223-9012.
T
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yauf oM ▼ 9 ▼ September 1999