Scientists to Bush: Stop Logging National Forests
Letter to President Bush highlights the need for protection and restoration

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.

Noted scientist-signers include Dr. Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author; Dr. Anne Ehrlich, Associate Director of Stanford University's Center for Conservation Biology; and Dr. Peter Raven, Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden and recipient of the 2000 President's National Medal of Science.

Dear Mr. President,

As conservation-minded scientists with many years of experience in biological sciences and ecology, we are writing to bring your attention to the need to protect our National Forests. Logging our National Forests has not only degraded increasingly rare and valuable habitat, but also numerous other services such as recreation and clean water.

Our National Forest System was first established over one hundred years ago to bring an end to the reckless destruction that had ravaged wildlife habitat and watersheds. At the time, Congress acknowledged that establishing National Forests would provide America with diverse wildlife, healthy watersheds, and a sustainable supply of wood products.

Unfortunately, the past emphasis of management has been on logging and the original vision for our National Forests has failed to be fully realized. During the past several decades, our National Forests have suffered from intense commercial logging. Today almost all of our old growth forests are gone and the timber industry has turned our National Forests into a patchwork of clearcuts, logging roads, and devastated habitat. More than 3,000 species of fish and wildlife and 10,000 plant species- including 230 endangered plant and animal species- make their home in National Forests. Scientific research has repeatedly reaffirmed the tenet that wildlife need an abundant, healthy, and intact environment to survive. Unless the destruction of fragile ecosystems is immediately reversed through scientifically based restoration and recovery, the damage done to terrestrial and aquatic habitat will be irrevocable.

It is now widely recognized that commercial logging has damaged ecosystem health, clean water, and recreational opportunities- values that are highly appreciated by the American public. The continued logging of our National Forests also wastes American tax dollars and diminishes the possibilities of future economic benefits. The Forest Service and independent economists have estimated that timber accounts for only 2.7 percent of the total values of goods and services derived from the National Forests, while recreation and fish and wildlife produce 84.6 percent. Annually, timber produces roughly $4 billion per year while recreation, fish and wildlife, clean water, and unroaded areas provide a combined total of $224 billion to the American economy each year. When the dramatic values of ecological goods and services are taken into account, it is clear that protecting National Forests creates more economic benefits than continued logging. Moreover, only 4 percent of America's timber supply comes from National Forests. Timber should no longer be extracted from our National Forests, especially when it comes at the expense of biological diversity and healthy ecosystems.

Logging has caused devastating impacts on the ability of our National Forests to provide wildlife habitat and economically valuable goods and services. The loss of biodiversity is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us. National Forests are our largest source of wildlife habitat, clean water, and recreation areas. Without protection from further logging, the biological diversity we so greatly need could be lost. Mr. President, we urge you to end the destructive practice of commercial logging in the National Forests and to begin a scientifically based program to restore habitat and native species.

Sincerely,

221 PhD. Scientists

For a complete list of signers, click here.

Call to End Logging Based on Conservation Biology

By Dr. Anne Ehrlich, Dr. David Foster and Dr. Peter Raven

When the Bush Administration backpedaled on protecting the last remaining wild areas in America's National Forests, many of us in the scientific community took notice. For much of the past century the Forest Service, entrusted as the institutional steward of our National Forests, focused its management on an industrial-scale logging program. The result of the massive logging and road construction program was to damage watersheds, destroy wildlife habitat and imperil plant and animal species.

As a response, we joined more than 200 Ph.D.-level scientists with many years of experience in biological sciences and ecology in signing a letter to President Bush urging him to shift away from the damaging commercial logging program and focus on a program to restore America's National Forests. Why would more than 200 scientists peer out of the towers of academia to get involved in natural resource politics? The answers are in the forests themselves.

Our National Forests are worth more than their trees. Some 3,000 species of fish and wildlife and 10,000 plants species - many of them endangered - make their home in National Forests. As the scientists assert, scientific research has repeatedly reaffirmed the tenet that wildlife need an abundant, healthy, and intact environment to survive. Unless the destruction of fragile ecosystems is immediately reversed through scientifically based restoration and recovery, the damage will be irrevocable.

The continued logging of our National Forests also wastes American tax dollars and diminishes the possibilities of future economic benefits. The Forest Service lost $2 billion dollars on the commercial logging program between 1992-1997. Annually, timber produces roughly $4 billion while recreation, fish and wildlife, clean water, and unroaded areas provide a combined total of $224 billion to the American economy. Forests purify our drinking water - 60 million Americans get their drinking water from National Forests. When the dramatic values of ecological goods and services are taken into account, it is clear that protecting National Forests creates more economic benefits than continued logging.

Americans love to hike, camp, fish, hunt and canoe in our National Forests. With more than 4,000 campgrounds, 121,000 miles of trails and 96 wild and scenic rivers, they are natural treasures we should work to protect and restore.

There are alternatives to traditional timber-based products that consumers can choose, including recycled products, kenaf, hemp and agricultural fiber. Using tree-free paper will help to preserve our National Forest heritage and lessen the impact we have on the environment.

Decades of destructive logging have taken a harsh toll on the land. It is time that we actively promote the restoration of these forests. Restoration of damaged forests can be accomplished across the National Forest System by shifting subsidies away from logging and into a program that allows local contractors to be paid to restore, instead of damage, National Forests. Investing in ecosystem health would provide clean water, enhanced fish and wildlife habitat and recreation, and increased jobs and economic benefits.

We have based our recommendations - to protect undamaged wild forests, end commercial logging and road construction, and actively restore damaged forest areas - on conservation biology. The Bush administration, on the other hand, has introduced a number of measures to weaken important wild forest protections largely at the behest of the timber industry.

As scientists and researchers we tend to disagree on a number of topics, but now it is important to note the solidarity among the signers on the need to end the logging of our National Forests.

"Logging has caused devastating impacts on the ability of our National Forests to provide wildlife habitat and economically valuable goods and services. The loss of biodiversity is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us. National Forests are our largest source of wildlife habitat, clean water and recreation areas. Without protection from further logging, the biological diversity we so greatly need could be lost," we wrote in our letter to the President.

As scientists and Americans, we care about our National Forests and want them to provide the benefits of clean water, fish and wildlife habitat and recreation for future generations. We must take proactive steps to end commercial logging on our National Forests and protect our wild forest heritage so that generations of Americans will be able to go hiking, hunting, fishing, birdwatching and exploring in our National Forests. We hope the Bush Administration takes notice of this letter and acts to protect and not despoil these natural treasures.

Dr. Ehrlich is associate director of Stanford University's Center for Conservation Biology, Dr. Foster is director of the Harvard Forest, and Dr. Raven is director of the Missouri Botanical Garden.