And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: "Wild Rockies Alerts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Spokesman-Review (Idaho edition) May 13, 1999 Working out the bugs EPA wants more details from Forest Service on logging plans Ken Olsen - The Spokesman-Review Coeur d'Alene _ The U.S. Forest Service doesn't make a thorough case for large-scale logging in its environmental study of a Douglas fir bark beetle outbreak, the Environmental Protection Agency says. The EPA is calling on the Forest Service to give more details to justify taking 153 million board feet of lumber from the Idaho Panhandle and Colville national forests. The logging is proposed to deal with what the Forest Service calls the worst beetle outbreak in 40 years. The agency says tree damage from the 1996 ice storm followed by the dry summer of 1998 made conditions perfect for the beetle explosion. The EPA is partially right, the Forest Service says. It agrees it needs to better explain the need for the logging and road construction, as well as the consequences of doing nothing in response to the beetles. But the Forest Service says there is no doubt there is a pressing need to get bug-killed and likely-to-be-killed Douglas fir out of the woods fast. Otherwise, the trees will deteriorate and timber sales won't generate money for watershed restoration. The EPA's letter is one of more than 900 sets of comments the Forest Service received on its draft environmental study of the beetle project. The work of reading, analyzing and responding to those comments is slowing a final decision on how to deal with the beetles, said Brad Gilbert of the Panhandle forests. In its comments, the EPA is questioning whether the Forest Service considered the effect of the beetle project in conjunction with all of the other normal logging and road construction work on the national forests. "Harvesting over such an enormous area could be far more intrusion than is sustainable by the ecosystem, especially in light of the timber sales and other projects already planned for the area," Richard B. Parkin of the EPA said in a letter to the Forest Service. The EPA also questions whether the Forest Service has made the case that the beetle outbreak is serious, compared with historic outbreaks. The agency also didn't thoroughly explain the negative consequences of doing nothing, nor the effects of the road construction and logging on polluted or threatened streams and lakes, EPA said. The Forest Service agrees it needs to provide more detail and explanations of those particular logging consequences, but the agency does believe it's showing a comprehensive picture of the effects of the beetle logging in the larger logging and road construction picture. "We will be considering past, present and reasonable future activities of all kinds," Gilbert said. Part or all of the regular timber sales planned for the forests will be suspended if the Panhandle and Colville forests decide logging is part of the beetle remedy. It seems likely the Forest Service will log. Dead trees, with rusty-red needles, are becoming more abundant across the forest. Gilbert points to those dropping to the ground in the forest above Hayden Lake. If a fire starts, those trees could fuel a more intense fire, potentially sterilizing the soil, Gilbert said. A fire could destroy nearby homes, he added, waving to the expensive spreads dotting the Hayden area hills. "To me, it's a great deal to the taxpayers to get the timber companies to take these trees out of the forest, because they will be a liability in the future," Gilbert said. The Forest Service said it is marking trees for harvest, choosing roads for removal, and doing other on-the-ground preparation throughout the two forests. It's not irreversible work, so the agency believes it's legal to do it even before a final environmental study is done and the final logging decision is made, Gilbert said. Environmental groups, long skeptical of the beetle project, angrily disagree. For example, the Forest Service admitted it was breaking the law by marking trees for logging in a Douglas fir beetle project on the Boise National Forest last fall, said Jeff Juel of the Lands Council. A court transcript backs him up. Beyond that, it seems clear that an agency that is doing so much work on the ground has its mind made up before it has finished its studies, he said. "They've committed thousands of dollars and hundreds of person hours marking trees," Juel said. "How does that not prejudice the decision?" ************************************************************************ List-Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> News Submissions or Problems: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> This list is a public service provided by WIN: http://www.wildrockies.org Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
