Forest Officials Set Sights on ATVs

"Virginia Forest Watch thinks ATVs are inappropriate for public land," said Sherman Bamford, the group's public lands coordinator. "They do so much damage and right now the forest service is not able to do that much in the way of enforcement." - Jan. 11, 2007 Roanoke Times Article

Read Roanoke Times article

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USDA ANNOUNCES ABIGAIL KIMBELL AS THE 16TH CHIEF OF
THE FOREST SERVICE

Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth Announces his Retirement

WASHINGTON, January 12, 2007 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced the selection of Abigail Kimbell as the 16th chief of the Forest Service. Kimbell succeeds Chief Dale Bosworth, who is retiring on Feb. 2 after 41 years with the Forest Service.

"Abigail Kimbell is a veteran of the Forest Service who began as a seasonal worker and has since filled an impressive series of field assignments," said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. "Gail brings a wealth of knowledge to her new position. She is well respected both within the agency and by our stakeholders. I'm confident she will do a terrific job as chief."

"I am grateful to Dale Bosworth for his 41 years of public service and especially for the tremendous leadership he provided during his six years as chief," Johanns continued. "I am struck by all that the Forest Service accomplished under his watch, from advancing the Healthy Forest Initiative to a four-fold increase in fuels treatment work. He also bolstered the agency's financial system, making it a source of pride government wide. I wish Dale all the best in retirement."

Kimbell currently serves as Regional Forester for the Northern Region in Missoula, Montana, which includes northern Idaho, and North Dakota. As Forest Service Chief, Kimbell will oversee an organization of over 30,000 employees and a budget of just over $4 billion. Before becoming regional forester, Kimbell served in the Washington Office as Associate Deputy Chief for the National Forest System, with responsibility for assisting in the development of the Healthy Forest Restoration.

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Why the Forest Service logs our National Forests
Response to Joy Malones Guest Editorial
High Country News, Boone, North Carolina
December 21, 2006

Christopher Joyell, Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project Campaign Coordinator

While reading District Ranger Joy Malone's Guest Editorial last week (Dec. 14), I was reminded of another work of fiction-George Orwell's novel, 1984. In his classic novel, Orwell introduced us to the concept of "newspeak," where up is down, black is white, and 2+2=5.

The aim of the fictional language was to control thought and squelch debate simply by removing words from our vocabulary. Taking a page from Orwell, the Forest Service claims that logging projects like the Globe are no longer conducted to generate timber; they are carried out to create wildlife habitat, namely logged-over habitat for a select suite of game species. It just so happens that the project is also funded by the sale of our trees to the timber industry.

For almost a century, the agency made no secret of one of its chief priorities-to provide lumber to the timber industry. It would be foolish to try to conceal this goal, especially when the man who currently heads up the Forest Service, Mark Ray, previously collected a paycheck as a timber industry lobbyist. Regardless
of your opinion about logging on public lands, at least the agency was honest about its intent.

But now that has changed, probably because the Forest Service realizes that people value clean water, clean air and recreation above timber production on our
public lands. The Forest Service continues to cut our forests, only now they are marketing it as wildlife habitat creation.

Our public lands have suffered from over a century of agency mismanagement. Clear cuts and unrestrained road building have altered our forests to such an extent that the Forest Service sees no other option but to continue its heavy-handed management practices. Yet, by destroying mature forests we have diminished the potential for the creation of the natural openings that form when trees die and fall, thereby creating "early successional habitat."

No one will deny the inherent benefits of a mixed age forest with diverse structure and composition. The Forest Service can create the desired "early successional habitat" simply by reentering the 20-year old clear cuts that are overgrown, filled with invasives, and provide nominal habitat benefits, and thin them, burn them, or mow them. But they instead elect to go into mature forests to create these openings. Why?

The answer to this question gets to the root of why the Forest Service logs our National Forests. The answer is timber, plain and simple. If you look past their cleverly disguised wildlife arguments or spend time reviewing their proposals, it is clear that their motivation is the timber industry's motivation.

Of course, Ranger Malone indulges in some half-truths in her guest editorial. For example, she wrote that the agency is "adding 311 acres .of old growth habitat," without disclosing that much of that "habitat" doesn't actually contain old growth trees.

Those areas are designated as "future" old growth, but many of those acres have been logged recently. One area, for example, was logged only 12 years ago,
meaning that it will be "old growth" only after we and our children are dead and gone (unless, of course, the Forest Service chooses to log it before then). Yet the
agency shows no hesitancy in cutting down existing old growth, trees that stood before our nation's founding. Some would call this, at best, misleading.

But these are minor deviations from the truth when held against the stated purpose of this project. The fact remains that the timber industry will profit from
the removal of our trees in the Globe Forest. And they will profit off our backs, because it is taxpayers like you and me who foot the bill for these logging projects.

Maybe deer, turkey, and grouse will benefit from this project in the short-term. Then again, maybe not. The Forest Service has no idea, because it doesn't monitor for wildlife on post-logged sites. It's in the timber business, not the wildlife business, after all. But in this age of "newspeak," up is down, black is white, and logging is good for wildlife.

It's time the Forest Service stops building roads and starts building trust. The Globe Forest provides ancient views, clean air, clean water, solitude, and a sense of place that should never be destroyed because it is these things that make our nation great. The promise of a bright future for our children is far more important than the promise of an easy buck.


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Helicopters Log National Forest

Thinning of the forest - Helicopter attracts onlookers

The News Leader - Staunton, Va. Jan 2, 2007
By Alice Mannette

DEERFIELD ­ A helicopter in Deerfield is not an ordinary occurrence. Yet,
one showed up Saturday at 7 a.m. ready to cut logs and ferry them over to
land owned by Viola McWhorter.

McWhorter gave permission for Columbia Helicopters, an international
heavy-lift helicopter company based in Oregon, to temporarily store the
logs cleared from the George Washington National Forest on her property.
The company also used land that's been in her family since the late 1800s
to refuel the two-propeller machine.

Many onlookers from Deerfield and the surrounding area came to see the
chopper glide above the mountain-line, pick up the logs and then transport
them to a field ­ to be picked up by trucks at a later date.

Aaron Ramsey, 3, stood riveted as the helicopter landed in a field just
yards from his father's black pickup.

"We don't get this kind of excitement out here too often," said Aaron's
mother, Dana Ramsey. "He's pretty crazy about helicopters."

Five-year-old Ally Shinaberry of Deerfield was just as excited.

"They showed us in it yesterday," her father Lee Shinaberry said. "We knew
they was going to do it about a year ago."

This three-day tour ends before dusk tonight, though, the company expects
to return for a few weeks in February to finish the project.

"We plan to get roughly 1,300,000 feet total," said Matt Cole, a mechanic
for Columbia Helicopters.

Fellow mechanic Abe Abel said that it is more cost-effective, faster and
better for the environment to use a helicopter to clear the land.

"To do what we're doing in three days could take trucks three weeks to
three months to do," he said.

Abel also pointed out that roads would have to be made if trucks were to go
up the mountain.

Thinning trees helps stave off forest fires said a Colorado forestry
association Web site.

Colorado Forester Kamie Fuller wrote, "Whenever possible, thin, cut and
prune trees before March and after September. The best defense against
wildfire is thinning and proper forest management."

Columbia Helicopters president wrote that out of 192 million acres of
federal forests, more than 70 million acres are threatened by massive
wildfires unless proper, substantial thinning occurs.

But Pastures District Supervisor Tracy Pyles said while warding off fires
could be a legitimate reason for thinning, he is not sure if the location
has been studied enough. He said that he was unaware of the operation and
is concerned about it.

Pyles' largest concern is how the logging will affect flash flooding in the
area.

"It's like a roof. Instead of having ten spouts come down, you might have
two spouts and have a mega-force instead of a slow force," Pyles said. "We
have some places in Deerfield where the river runs across the road and you
can't get a school bus across it."

But for Aaron, watching the red-and-white helicopter manned by two pilots,
lift and place 6,500 pounds of lumber is a treat.

"It's fun," he said as he watched both the helicopter and the trucks, cars
and motorcycles that slowed down and stopped on a little-used Deerfield road.


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Warmer waters could mean fewer trout in Virginia streams
By the Associated Press
January 6, 2007

ROANOKE, Va. -- Researchers warn that if current climate projections hold true, warmer temperatures could mean fewer trout in Virginia's 2,300 miles of
wild trout streams.

And one model indicates rising temperatures could take 97 percent of the trout habitat in the southern Appalachians by 2100.

"A warmer climate. That doesn't sound so bad," said Patricia Flebbe, a researcher with the U.S. Forest Service's Southern Research Station in Blacksburg. "And 2 or 3 degrees doesn't sound like much. It might mean it won't be so cold in the winter. Or I might run my air conditioner more."

Trout can't survive water temperatures above 76 degrees for very long and suffer when temperatures are 72 degrees over a long period, said Nathaniel Gillespie, a fisheries scientist with the conservation organization Trout Unlimited.

"Trout are a cold-water fish," he said. "That's just the way they're designed."

Average air temperature in the U.S. has increased 0.6 degrees Celsius in the past 100 years. Estimates of the increase by 2100 range from 3 degrees to 5.5 degrees Celsius.

And wild trout populations will virtually disappear from Virginia if temperatures increase 4.5 degrees Celsius, according to Flebbe's study published in the journal Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.

There are other factors that also can have an impact on the trout population in Virginia, which has more streams than all of the eastern United States combined.

A recent brook trout study shows the most immediate threats to the native fish are agricultural land management, urbanization and introduced species--brown
and rainbow trout, Gillespie said. All wild trout are threatened by changing land use and rising temperatures.

"The analysis doesn't take into account any type of mitigation that people might do," Flebbe said. "Not so much to try to fix it, but work to provide the fishing
experience."

For instance, more streams may be stocked with trout. And while Virginia already puts 1.25 million trout raised in five hatcheries into streams and lakes each
year, those trout won't support populations year-round because the fish will only survive long enough for people to catch them.

"Stocked trout are just for people's enjoyment," said Gillespie. Wild trout are different, he said. "They're part of the food chain and part of the ecosystem."


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Sustainability Strategies for the Blue Ridge: Permaculture Design Course

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This course covers themes such as: ecological systems understanding, organic food production, natural soil improvement, watershed restoration, water conservation and management, edible forest gardening, native medicinal plants, natural habitat restoration, healthy buildings and human settlements, community and consensus building strategies, renewable energy systems, sustainable community development, local economics, reducing our ecological footprint, and ecological planning and design methods.

This 72 hour certificate course, presented by the Association for Regenerative Culture and the Blue Ridge Permaculture Network, is a rare opportunity to learn from the best teachers in the permaculture movement including Peter Bane, Dave Jacke, Dave O'Neill and Christine Gyovai. The course will be held over five weekends at the Rockfish Valley Community Center (RVCC), which is nestled in Nelson County at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains (March 2-4, 16-18, Mar. 30-Apr. 1, 13-15, and 27-29). For more information, see the website www.rockfishcc.org. The cost for the course is $895, and a few work trade positions are available. Early registration is encouraged as space is limited. Lunches and snacks will be provided during the Design Course. Students will be responsible for their own overnight accommodations off-site, as well as transportation to and from the site. For a list of accommodations close to RVCC, go to the website: http://www.nelsoncounty.com/visit/lodging.

For more information about the course including registration, directions, and faculty visit www.permacultureactivist.net/DesignCourse/PcSyllabus.htm or contact Christine Gyovai at 434-982-6464 or christinegyovai@gmail.com


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Take Heart From RAIL Solution

David vs. Goliath: Attention all Davids, take heart from RAIL Solution

Skeptics said the STAR Solutions’ project to privatize I-81, Western Virginia’s most valued public asset, could not be stopped. Indeed, the enormous power, corporate wealth, and vast political influence controlled by STAR Solutions partners is legendary.

Halliburton Corporation’s formidable and infamous KBR subsidiary is the lead partner of STAR. The giant construction consortium boasts dozens of other national partners: Randolph DeLay; Ashland Oil; Northrop Grumman; Parsons Brinkerhoff; Lehman Brothers; Salmon, Smith, Barney; Tyco International. At the state level STAR is a virtual Who’s Who of political influence: Richmond law firm McGuire Woods; Adams; English; Lanford; W-L Construction and Paving; Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern; and Thompson & Litton.

In 2003, only RAIL Solution opposed STAR’s monstrous eight-lane I-81 tollway tearing across the beautiful mountainous spine of Western and Southwest Virginia. This boondoggle featured four lanes exclusively for millions more trucks. STAR proposed to charge a business-crushing $130 for one truck trip through Virginia. RAIL Solution proposed an alternative. Virginia should go into partnership with Norfolk Southern to build a railroad capable of carrying through-state truck freight on scheduled trains, time-competitive with trucks. RAIL Solution supporters approached 48 local city and town councils, county boards of supervisors and regional planning organizations with the rail idea. These citizens ultimately garnered resolutions of support from 47 of these representative bodies.

Skeptics, however, told rail supporters that if rail were relevant and feasible, Norfolk Southern would already be acting to implement it. They said RAIL Solution would never be able to persuade NS to get involved. But now Norfolk Southern is involved. This is a story of how RAIL Solution used people power during the past year to turn the tables on the rich and powerful corporations

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) issued 1-81 Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) in late November, 2005. The DEIS badly shortchanged rail potential in the 1-81 Corridor, rejecting without analysis the only viable rail option, which RAIL Solution had suggested during the scoping process. The DEIS was peppered with errors and omissions, some rather substantive. RAIL Solution’s response detailing these deficiencies ultimately totaled 21 pages.

Largely to plug this huge hole in the DEIS, RAIL Solution authored and sought sponsors for a bill before the Virginia General Assembly directing a multi-state rail intermodal feasibility assessment in the 1-81 Corridor. The bill, HB-1581, passed both houses unanimously and was signed into law by Gov. Kaine. This bill succeeeded in an Assembly session in which virtually all transportation legislation was deadlocked. H-1581 set truck time-competitive service and shifted 60% of through-Virginia trucking using I-81 to the railroad as performance criteria for the study.

At about the same time, RAIL Solution members attended many of Gov. Kaine’s Transportation Town Meetings during his listening tour as Governor-Elect and early in his administration. We talked about our vision for balanced transportation planning with a real role for rail, sometimes setting up displays and distributing hand-outs. The Governor began to refer to some of
RAIL Solution leaders by first name. The RAIL Solution executive board met with Kaine’s transition team to help clarify transportation priorities for the new administration.

During the public comment period on the DEIS last spring, RAIL Solution distributed issue analyses targeted to specific groups, helping to guide and encourage their responses. More importantly, we produced professional-quality handbills, encouraging the public to comment in opposition to the DEIS’s rejection of a real rail alternative. These were distributed to thousands of citizens in the Corridor and were used in greeting people arriving at the six public meetings held in April. Over 90% of the publicly stated comments VDOT received at these meetings opposed the DEIS. Most speakers also supported a rail freight alternative for 1-81.

Throughout the summer, RAIL Solution representatives attended meetings in Richmond and Norfolk of the Freight Advisory Committee, the Rail Advisory Board, and the Commonwealth Transportation Board, speaking and making presentations when permitted. VDOT sought to dismiss the H-1581 study as an unfunded mandate, and a lot of behind-the-scenes promotion was needed to secure a funding mechanism and get the project moving.

August 30th was a pivotal day. RAIL Solution leaders went to Richmond for a luncheon hosted by the Department of Rail & Public Transportation. The new DRPT director, Matthew Tucker, and his chief rail freight analyst, Kevin Page, shared a proposal from James Hixon, Norfolk Southern’s Executive Vice President of Law & Corporate Relations, to cooperate and divide both the cost and scope of work for the H-1581 study. A few weeks later Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer accepted Norfolk Southern’s proposal. Now, the H-1581 study of potential interstate diversion of trucks to rail in the 1-81 Corridor could get underway.

That same afternoon, RAIL Solution leaders met with Gov. Kaine and eight of his top transportation and policy officials. They discussed the leadership opportunity for Kaine and for Virginia to establish a new freight transportation paradigm for the nation, starting in the 1-81 Corridor. The rail supporters urged a short-term focus on fixing road safety issues and capacity chokepoints, with long-term maximizing of rail potential. Gov. Kaine told his team he wasn’t going to micromanage them, but he wanted them to make it happen. The next month, when the administration’s new transportation policy for 1-81 was announced, it followed just such a model.

Momentum for rail flagged at the September 21 meeting of the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) in Norfolk, when VDOT rushed forward a resolution for the CTB to approve the badly flawed 1-81 DEIS plan for a mostly eight-lane I-81 before any new information from the H-1581 rail study could be included. A vote was planned for a short three weeks later at the CTB’s October meeting in Roanoke. Just as they did to pass HB-1581 and for the DEIS comment period, RAIL Solution quickly organized a grassroots effort by members and allied groups to phone, write, visit, and e-mail their CTB representatives, and to speak at the meeting in opposition to VDOT’s proposal. With outstanding help and support from Bristol District CTB representative Jim Bowie, rail advocates succeeded in modifying the resolution, assuring consideration of the results of the rail study to be completed next summer.

Some skeptics still seek to demean RAIL Solution’s accomplishments by saying these things would have happened anyway, without this work. Don’t believe it. The members and supporters of RAIL Solution and partners, such as Rockbridge Area Conservation Council, Shenandoah Valley Network, Southern Environmental Law Center, Coalition for Smarter Growth, Virginia Association of Railway Patrons, Virginia Chapter Sierra Club, Virginia Organizing Project, Virginia Forest Watch, and the Virginia Environmental Network, set Virginia on a course towards a better transportation future in the I-81 Corridor. Without our more than 1,300 citizen volunteers and supportive allies, these achievements would never have been possible.

RAIL Solution’s accomplishments are real. But danger still lurks. STAR could come back. The rail study could be compromised or rejected. At VDOT, traditional, highway-centric thinking still dominates as does the suspicion of and aversion to rail alternatives. But we do have a genuine opportunity to do things smarter in Virginia. Together we’ll pioneer new, balanced transportation thinking and planning, with huge potential savings both economically and environmentally. We’ll set a standard for propagating a safer, cheaper, more economically beneficial transportation network while saving fuel, improving air quality and public health, and minimizing damage to the land and beauty of the Virginia mountain valleys.

Dave Foster is Executive Director and Rees Shearer is Chair of RAIL Solution. For more information visit www.railsolution.org or email Dave Foster railsolution@aol.com .