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press room> Response to Release of
Middle East Fork DEIS
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 21, 2005
Coalition of Local Conservation Groups Offer Their Perspectives
on Release of Bitterroot National Forest's DEIS for the Middle
East First Hazardous Fuel Reduction Project
Forest Service's Proposal Targets Thousands of Acres of Huge,
Old-Growth Doug Firs for Industrial Logging
Detailed information, including photos and videos, can be found
at:
http://www.nativeforest.org/middle_east_fork.htm
John Grove, retired Forest Service forester and member Friends
of the Bitterroot: (406) 777-2423
Cameron Naficy or Matthew Koehler, Native Forest Network: (406)
542-7343
Jake Kreilick, National Forest Protection Alliance: (406) 829-6353
MISSOULA, MT - Today, the Bitterroot National Forest released
the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Middle
East Fork Hazardous Fuel Reduction Project, the first "Healthy
Forest Restoration Act" project in Montana.
Alternative 3 of the DEIS is based on a part of the Community
Protection and Local Economy Alternative submitted by a coalition
of local conservation groups. While Bitterroot National Forest
Supervisor Dave Bull stated recently that "environmental
organizations did not participate in the community collaboration
effort" (Missoulian, April 21, 2005) it should be pointed
out that the BNF NEVER informed or invited the Native Forest
Network and the National Forest Protection to attend any of
these collaborative meetings.
Unfortunately, Bitterroot National Forest Supervisor Dave Bull
has decided to arbitrarily eliminate from further analysis the
major watershed and road restoration components of the Community
Protection and Local Economy Alternative. Nevertheless, conservation
groups are confident that Alternative 3 provides far superior
community wildfire protection to the East Fork community.
"We are confident that our alternative provides far superior
community wildfire protection to the folks who live up the East
Fork," said John Grove, retired Forest Service forester
and member of Friends of the Bitterroot. "Our alternative
offers more effective and efficient wildfire protection because
it concentrates fuel reduction resources within 1/4 mile of
the East Fork community, exactly where experts say we can get
the biggest bang for our buck. Meanwhile, the Bitterroot's proposal
doesn't offer nearly the comprehensive level of community wildfire
protection and instead focuses on logging huge Douglas-fir trees
deeper in the woods."
"We are disappointed that the Bitterroot National Forest
has decided to arbitrarily eliminate from further analysis the
watershed and road restoration components of our alternative
as these activities would have provided hundreds of local jobs
restoring forest health in the East Fork of the Bitterroot,"
explained Jake Kreilick of the National Forest Protection Alliance.
"If the Healthy Forests Restoration Act is about restoring
healthy forests how can the Forest Service decide to arbitrarily
eliminate the watershed and road restoration components from
our alternative?"
"We have done extensive on-the-ground monitoring of the
proposed industrial logging units in this project and it's clear
that cutting down legacy Douglas-fir trees up to four feet in
diameter, as the Forest Service is advocating, is not restoration
or fuel reduction," stated Cameron Naficy, Northern Rockies
Coordinator for the Native Forest Network. "How does 5,000
acres of industrial logging in a watershed that is already heavily
logged and roaded make a forest healthy?"
# # # |
Native Forest Network
P.O. Box 8251
Missoula, MT 59807
Phone: (406) 542-7343
Fax: (406) 542-7347
E-mail: nfn@wildrockies.org
© 2003 Native
Forest Network. All rights reserved.
Website design by Cameron Naficy |
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