The Toms Branch timber sale, in the James River Ranger District of the George Washington National Forest, is a 248 acre timber sale partially in a 3400 acre unprotected roadless area. The roadless area was first identified under the Forest Service's RARE II roadless area evaluation in the late 1970s as part of a larger area, but is vulnerable to logging today. The Forest Service is aiming directly for the bullseye of this roadless area. The logging would consist of a long swathe of multiple cuts running across the center of this important roadless tract.

Most of the sale would be cut via helicopters. The Forest Service is planning to build an exorbitant number of large helicopter landings as part of the project. The Forest Service had initially told the public that "With the use of a helicopter yarding system, very little soil disturbance is expected to occur, when compared to conventional logging systems." But, according to the agency's own figures, soil damage from helicopter logging could very well be greater than that from conventional ground-based logging due to the large size of the landings.

Helicopter logging would also allow loggers to access remote areas and steep slopes that probably shouldn't be logged in the first place. Elsewhere in Virginia, in the Clinch Ranger District in southwest Virginia, landslides and flooding devastated the Stony Creek watershed below High Knob. Before the slides occurred, the watershed was heavily impacted by steep-slope helicopter logging and other conventional steep-slope logging.

In addition, significant older forests would be cut down as part of this project. For example, outside of the RARE II area, the Forest Service is proposing skidder-based logging in the fourth oldest stand remaining in the project area.

As part of our appeal, we also objected to the misleading nature of the document approving the sale. For example, the Forest Service wrongly claimed that a host of forest species benefit from logging, including the rock skullcap, a rare plant that is primarily threatened by a loss of forest canopy; the cerulean warbler, a species typically found in extensive forests with large, tall trees; and the worm-eating warbler, a species mainly found on heavily wooded steep slopes, according to the latest available information.

Please write to the Forest Supervisor, George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, 5162 Valleypointe Parkway, Roanoke, Virginia 24019 and tell him/her that you are opposed to the Toms Branch timber sale and other logging in roadless areas, including RARE II roadless areas.*


*Two other projects are currently planned in other RARE II roadless areas (the Cold Springs project in the Elliott Knob RARE II area and the Paddy timber sale, in the Big Schloss RARE II area).