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Public Lands Project Resources and Reports
A Hard Look
at the Biscuit "Fire Recovery Project"
(pdf)
The Forest Service, logging industry and some politicians
are using buzz-words such as forest restoration, fuel reduction
and community protection to justify a Biscuit "recovery"
plan that's actually one of the largest logging projects in
U.S. history.
A Hard Look at
the Bitterroot "Burned Area Recovery Plan"
(pdf)
This new publication from the Native Forest Network examines
the on-the-ground realities of the Bitterroot National Forest’s
so-called "Burned Area Recovery Plan." Originally
touted by the Forest Service and logging industry as a model
approach to post-fire restoration and community protection
following the 2000 wildfires, actual implementation of the
"recovery" plan has been plagued by broken promises
and a complete lack of accountability.
Postfire
Management on Forested Public Lands of the Western United
States (pdf)
This new report from a team of nine scientists examines the
ecological effects of some common postfire treatments, including
post-fire logging. The scientists reviewed postfire management
practices within the context of ecological restoration and
propose guidelines for postfire management aimed at maintaining
or restoring the integrity of forested landscapes and their
dependent freshwater systems. This report is a must read for
anyone interested in postfire issues.
Ancient
Forests Under Threat in 2004 (pdf)
This document identifies public lands logging projects that
target ancient, old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest.
These logging projects are in various stages of development
from early planning to active logging. This year, 188 logging
projects threaten to destroy over 138 square miles of ancient,
old-growth forests. If you thought ancient, old-growth forests
on your public lands were protected from logging, think again.
The list was compiled and published by the Northwest
Old-Growth Campaign.
Roadless
Areas of Idaho and Montana: What We've Lost and What We Stand
to Lose (pdf)
This new report from the Native Forest Network and
Friends of the Clearwater looks at key roadless wildlands
in the northern Rockies. If the Roadless Rule is reversed
by the Bush Administration, over nine million acres of roadless
wildlands in the northern Rockies currently offered some protections
by the Roadless Rule would be opened for logging and roadbuilding.
Road
Wrecked: Why the $10 Billion Forest Service Road Maintenance
Backlog is Bad for Taxpayers
Taxpayers for Common Sense documents the $10 billion road
maintenance backlog in our nation's forests. This backlog
negatively effects American taxpayers, yet the Forest Service,
Congress, and the Bush Administration have failed to reduce
this burden by encouraging or implementing common sense road
construction and maintenance policies.
Conservation
Groups Accuse Forest Service of "Gross Negligence"
Two years following a controversial settlement on the Bitterroot
National Forest and the Forest Service out of compliance with
a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Biological Opinion and
only 17% of the required road and watershed restoration work
completed. And in the words of one Forest Service official
$18 million in restoration funds to complete the work are
"just gone." Learn more about this living example
of Bush forest policy gone awry.
Bush Signs So-Called
'Healthy Forests' Bill
Like the double-speak rhetoric offered by his "Clear
Skies Initiative," this legislation leaves homes and
communities vulnerable to wildfire, severely limits public
participation and does not ensure protections for ancient,
old-growth forests or roadless wildlands. Environmental groups
promise to expose truth behind Bush's pro-logging agenda and
stop projects that don't protect communities or restore forests.
Separating
Fact from Fiction: Deconstructing the Myths Behind the Healthy
Forests Initiative
Regardless of your political leanings, everyone should agree
that any national policy to protect homes from wildfire and
restore America's National Forests should be based on facts
and common sense, not on myths and unconfirmed data. Unfortunately,
to achieve their goal of increasing commercial logging in
National Forests the Bush Administration and some members
of Congress have found it more convenient to rely on the later,
while completely ignoring the former.
The
National Forest Protection and Restoration Act: Restoring
our National Forests and Revitalizing Rural Communities
(pdf)
You can download a copy of this general two-page hand and
print additional copies to educate your community about protecting
and restoring America's National Forests as envisioned in
this progressive piece of legislation.
Death
by a Thousand Cuts (pdf)
The Bush Administration is hard at work doing whatever it
takes to increase logging and resource extraction on America's
National Forests.
Restoration
or Exploitation? Post-Fire Salvage Logging in America's National
Forests (pdf)
With over half of the current logging volume on National Forests
coming from post-fire timber sales, this groundbreaking report
sheds light on the true ecological and economic costs from
one of the most ecologically-destructive forms of commercial
logging.
2003
California Wildfires:
What burned and why
US Geological Survey research indicates fire suppression and
fuel buildup are not responsible for shrubland fires in southern
California.
2003 Wildfires:
Comparing Plum Creek Timber Company Lands with US Forest Service
Wilderness and Unroaded Lands (pdf)
Forest monitoring trips by the Native Forest Network clearly
reveal that, despite being heavily logged, "thinned"
and roaded, this summer's wildfires burned very intensely
on Plum Creek Timber Company lands.
Yet Another GAO Report
Confirms that Appeals and Litigation Don't Delay Fuel Reduction
Projects
On October 24, 2003 the General Accounting Office released
a new study entitled, "Information
on Forest Service Decisions Involving Fuels Reduction Activities"
.pdf). The new report confirms,
once again, that administrative appeals (the opportunity for
the public to make suggestions to the Forest Service on proposed
projects) and litigation do no cause delays to fuel reduction
projects. This is the fourth GAO study since 2001 to have
similar findings.
New
GAO Report Shows Federal Agencies Fail to Identify Lands at
Risk from Fire and Fail to Make Community Fire Protection
a Priority (pdf)
On September 15, 2003 the General Accounting Office released
a report on Wildland Fire Management, which found that (1)
federal agencies have failed to identify lands at risk of
fire; (2) federal agencies have failed to make community fire
protection a priority and (3) the main reasons fuel reduction
projects could not proceed were due to the weather and the
diversion of fuel reduction funds to fight wildfires, not
due to "analysis paralysis" as repeatedly claimed
by Bush Administration officials.
Analysis of Litigated Hazardous Fuel Reduction Projects
Despite repeated claims by the Bush Administration and logging
industry that Forest Service fuel reduction projects are being
stopped by litigation this new analysis shows that of all
the acreage slated for fuels reduction in fiscal years 2001
and 2002 only 2% was litigated and only about 1% was subject
to any interim injunction. Click
here for the report (pdf) and
here for
the accompanying spreadsheet (pdf).
NEW
REPORT IDENTIFIES NATIONAL FORESTS AT GREATEST RISK FROM BUSH
ADMINISTRATION PRO-LOGGING POLICIES
On June 3, 2003 a nationwide coalition of environmental groups
released Endangered Forests, Endangered Freedoms - a new report
that identifies the national forests at greatest risk from
logging and the Bush Administration's attempts to eliminate
public oversight and environmental laws. The report is in
response to the Bush Administration's unprecedented attacks
on America's national forests. Pulitzer Prize-winning author,
Dr. E.O. Wilson of Harvard University, joined the groups to
call for an end to logging in these national treasures. Click
here for the press release.
Restoration
Principles (pdf)
In May 2003, 124 conservation groups from around the country
released a set of Restoration Principles that serve as a national
policy statement to guide sound ecological restoration on
our nation's forests.The Restoration Principles are the result
of a 3-year bridge building effort between conservation groups
and restoration practitioners to develop agreement on a common
sense, scientifically-based framework for restoring our nation's
forests.
General
Accounting Office Report Seriously Contradicts Bush Administration's
Claims of "Analysis Paralysis."
A May 2003 General
Accounting Office (GAO) report (pdf)
shows that 95% of the 762 Forest Service fuels reduction projects
it analyzed were ready for implementation within the standard
90 day review period. The latest GAO report is consistent
with findings from a 2001 GAO report and an April 2003 report
from researchers at Northern Arizona University. All three
of these independent reports seriously contradict Bush Administration's
claims of "analysis paralysis."
Show Me
the Data! (pdf approx 120KB)
This new paper from Jacqueline Vaughn, a professor at Northern
Arizona University, explains how members of Congress and the
Bush Administration were successful in demonizing environmental
groups through the use of rhetoric and the repetition of unconfirmed
data to reduce their influence and credibility in the forest
and fire policy debate.
Analyzing
USDA Forest Service Appeals (pdf)
While the Bush Administration attempts to significantly limit
the public's right to participate in decisions affecting America's
public lands, a new report from Northern Arizona University
shows that appeals of Forest Service projects have actually
dropped significantly since 1998. The researchers found that
for such a politically contentious issue there has been no
comprehensive and systematic analysis of the outcomes of the
appeals process. In order to answer basic questions such as:
How many appeals are processed by the Forest Service annually,
who the appellants are and type of projects being appealed
the researchers found it necessary to construct their own
database of Forest Service appeals.
Education
Materials on the Bush Administration’s Healthy Forest
Initiative
These fact sheets provide a general overview of the Bush Administration’s
“Healthy Forest Initiative,” including Myths &
Facts about the HFI; Fire Facts: Putting Recent Forest Fires
into Perspective; and ‘Stewardless’ Logging: Stewardship
Contracting Authorities Made Permanent.
National Forests
and Mill Closures (pdf)
Logging industry experts report that mills in the U.S. are
closing due to plummeting log prices caused by a worldwide
over-supply of wood products. Despite this fact, the logging
industry in the U.S. continues to blame all mill shutdowns
on environmentalists. A new report by economists from ECONorthwest
examines the true factors behind U.S. mill closures.
NEW
Fire Analysis Shatters Common Misperceptions about Western
Wildfires
The results of an independent assessment of the Rodeo and
Chediski Fires in Arizona indicate that many politicians have
been off base when they blame these fires on environmental
groups and contend that logging would have prevented the fires.
Pacific Biodiversity Institute released a report July 9, 2002
evaluating the factors that led to this 468,638-acre fire
complex in Arizona.
New
Report Documents Waste and Fiscal Abuse At US Forest Service
In a new report released July 11, 2002, Taxpayers for Common
Sense (TCS), documents hundreds of millions of dollars in
logging and road subsidies for the timber industry while American
taxpayers are stuck with a road maintenance backlog that has
ballooned to more than $100 million in each of 16 states.
Getting Burned
by Logging In the first year of the Bush Administration,
the United States Forest Service inappropriately used National
Fire Plan brush reduction funds to plan large timber sales
in the Sierra Nevada. Learn more in this new report from the
John Muir Project.
Operation Enduring Forests:
Exposing the Lies of the Bush/Rey Forest Service
( also in .pdf
format)
While the Bush Administration carefully greenwashes its anti-environmental
image, former timber industry lobbyist Mark Rey is running
the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) as Bush's Under Secretary for
Natural Resources and Environment. With Mark Rey in charge,
his friends in the logging, mining, oil and gas, grazing and
motorized recreation industries are poised to exploit the
last untouched wild areas on America's national forests and
federal public lands. Learn more!
Meet Mark Rey: The Fox in the
Hen House
As Bush's Under Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment,
former timber industry lobbyist Mark Rey is responsible for
the management of 155 national forests, 19 national grasslands,
and 15 land utilization projects on 192,000,000 acres of publicly-owned
lands in 44 states. Make no mistake: This fox is not guarding
the hen house - this fox is IN the hen house.
Mark Rey Wants to Take Our
Forests Away
As news reports about the wildfires came in from the western
U.S. during August of 2000, Mark Rey must have seen some opportunity
among the flames. That's because Mark Rey, the timber industry
and the Forest Service recognize that the wildfires of 2000
may perhaps be their last real opportunity to return to the
glory days of the Reagan Administration, when taxpayer-subsidized
logging and roadbuilding dominated our national forests -
regardless of the consequences. And regardless of the truth.
Scientists to Bush: Stop Logging
National Forests
On April 16, 221 PhD-level scientists from every state in
the nation signed a letter to President Bush urging him to
end commercial logging on America's national forests and invest
in scientifically-supported forest restoration projects. In
the letter - which was released by the Sierra Club, National
Forest Protection Alliance and others - the scientists address
the benefits of forest protection to the nation's economy,
water quality, wildlife and recreation.
Citizens' Call for Ecological
Forest Restoration
Decision-makers, scientists, and the interested public have
recognized that there is an urgent need to restore forest
ecosystems after decades of intensive logging, fire suppression,
road building, grazing, mining, and invasions by exotic species.
NFN has been involved in the development Restoration Principles
to help guide restoration policy in the midst of the Forest
Service's attempts to increase logging under the guise of
"restoration."
The Problem With Public Lands
Grazing…and a Possible Solution John Muir called
them "hooved locust." Former Supreme Court Justice,
William O. Douglas characterized ranchers and the effect of
their cows on western lands as "vandalism." Bernard
Devoto concluded that the livestock industry did more damage
to the West than any other. Ed Abbey wrote that cattle ranching
on public lands is the most sacred forms of public welfare
in the United States.
What
does "Burned Area Recovery" look like to the Forest
Service?
This site contains photos from the Bitterroot National
Forest's Burned Area Recovery Plan. As part of the Forest
Service's Burned Area 'Recovery' Plan, the Forest Service
is logging 60 million board feet of trees from 14,000 acres
(almost 22 square miles). That's enough trees to fill 12,000
log trucks lined up end to end for over 100 miles! The Bitterroot
is another vivid example of what National Forest "management"
under the Bush Administration and Mark Rey looks like.
Boise: A National
Forest Timber Titan Stealing from You and Future Generations
(pdf)
Multinational timber corporation Boise, Inc. has a long history
of logging on America's national forests dating back to the
early 1900s. However, over the past 10 years it has become
the dominant logging company, purchasing more logging contracts
on national forest lands than any other company. Learn more
about this national forest Timber Titan.
America's
10 Most Endangered Forest Report
The National Forest Protection Alliance (NFPA), along with
world-renowned forest activist, Julia Butterfly Hill and members
of Congress released a startling new report, "America's
10 Most Endangered National Forests." The report, which
paints a grim ecological picture, documents the timber industry's
systematic desctruction of the national forest system by highlighting
the many threats posed from the commercial logging program.
Exposing the
Bush Administration's "Thinning" Plan
This Native Forest Network site will provide you with information
about the Bush Administration's plan to "thin" 30
million acres in the National Forests of the West. You will
also find photos of the Bush Administration and Forest Service's
posterchild "thinning" project - the Fort Valley
timber sale in the Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff,
Arizona.
Bush
Fire Plan Portends More Logging, More Fires The timber
industry and its political apologists have praised the Bush
Administration's recently-released 10-year Strategic Plan
for managing wildland fires. However, there are several fundamental
problems with this picture.
Budgetary Incentive Drives Forest
Service to Log, Suppress Fires
While the Forest Service uses the fear of fire to ratchet
up its logging program, the agency also has a virtual blank
check courtesy of the U.S. taxpayers to continue its warlike
fire-suppression activities.
Additional
resources on wildfires, fire ecology, logging and home protection
Links
to other groups working to end logging and exploitation on
public lands
Click Here for even
more information
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