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| December 2002 Hello Arkansas Sierrans Allow me to introduce myself. I am the new conservation organizer for the End Commercial Logging Campaign in Arkansas. I became involved with the Sierra Student Coalition and the Ozark Headwaters group as a student several years ago. After graduating from the University of Arkansas, I moved away for a few years and volunteered with other environmental and social justice groups and also extensively studied medicinal plants. Now, I am back and excited to be working in the Ozark and Ouachita mountains on an issue as important as forest protection. As many of you know, our national forests are threatened by logging. What documentation is there that logging is harmful? Most Americans think that national forest land is protected from logging and road building; unfortunately, that is not true. Indeed, commercial logging is allowed, and as a result, many of our forests are being managed as tree farmsAgain, what documentation is there that they are being managed as tree farms Timber harvesting has been severely reduced in the past decade. rather than harmonious ecosystems. The Organic Act proclaimed national forests as resources that provide wood and water to our nation's citizens. The point should be made that this is the main purpose of the national forests. They were not signed into law to provide the same objectives as national parks, whose sole purpose is recreation. Healthy intact forests protect water quality, provide habitat for many endangered or threatened plant and animal species, and provide numerous recreational benefits. True statement. However, to maintain a satisfactory degree of FOREST HEALTH, they have to be managed . Without management, the forests grow old, die, and burn. Arkansas is known as "The Natural State" yet if the logging industry continues to cut timber at such an astonishing rate in our public lands, we may have to change our motto. This nothing but a P.R. statement - no facts to back it up. For example, the Ouachita National Forest has been declared one of the ten Most Endangered National Forests in the nation, with 114 million board feet of timber cut in 2000 alone, more than any single National Forest except Alaska's Tongass National Forest. How many board feet are grown each year? It was more than the 114MMBF that was cut. Further, many rare herbaceous plants such as Harperalla, a federally recognized endangered species of the Parsley family have been discovered, yet only 4% of the Ouachita NF is designated as wilderness area in which no road building, logging or extractive activities can take place. 1) Check to see if this plant really is listed and does it grow there? Also where does it grow - in the designated wilderness area? If not, then it doesn't need to be designated as wilderness because it is already growing in a so-called managed area. At the least, we need more designations within the Ozarks and Ouachitas as special interest areas that are not subject to destructive practices such as logging and road building.This nothing but a P.R. statement - no facts to back it up. Sadly, we have less than 5% of our original forest cover left in the U.S. This is a totally blatant lie. Not true at all. We have more trees now than we did in the 1940's and 70% of the forests lands that were here when the pilgrims settled. The national forests should not be managed for timber, a commodity, at the risk of compromising biological diversity. Actually, logging on public lands is really unnecessary anyway. Nationally, only 4% of America's timber supply comes from national forests. Again, this is an untrue statement. Thus, with a little recycling, reducing, and reusing, folks could easily curb their use of timber products. Here's an idea: tree-free paper.
The Sierra Club just printed a brochure called "Alternatives to Logging Our Forests" that is 100% tree-free. In this brochure, kenaf and hemp both are promoted as fibers that are as good or better than tree fiber for making paper. Kenaf, a native African plant that grows well in the southern U.S., can reach a height of 12-18 feet in just a few months.How can any person or organization promote the removal of millions of acres of farm land from food production to raise kenaf, while in this country, we have a tree infestation and a forest health crisis? We have spent over a billion dollars fighting wild fires last year with the loss of 21 brave fire fighters.
The real catch here is that we, the American people, pay for destructive logging via taxes. Economically speaking, logging in our national forests is really counterproductive. According to ECONorthwest, timber produces roughly $4 billion per year while recreation, fish and wildlife, clean water, and road less areas provide a combined total of $224 billion to the American economy each year. Again ,this is more rhetoric for PR purposes. Statements like these serve no purpose but to distort the facts.The point is this; we don't need to log the precious little bit of intact forest we have left. We, the public, own this land and should be able to determine how it is managed. It is imperative that we organize at a grassroots level and put pressure on the Forest Service and legislators and let them know that we want to preserve the little bit of forest we have left.
To learn more online about the Sierra Club campaign to End Commercial Logging on Public Lands, you can visit our website @ http://www.sierraclub.org/logging/factsheet.asp If you have questions or are interested in joining the ECL campaign please contact:
Holly Ferguson
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Forest Heath | Salmon/Dams | Conservation Watch | Fire Watch |
