Steven Krichbaum
Washington Post Op Ed
Sunday, February 22, 2004; Page B08

Virginia is blessed with more than a million and a half acres of the George
Washington and Jefferson national forests. These mountain treasures provide
drinking water, crucial wildlife habitat and unparalleled recreational
opportunities. They also contain more threatened and endangered species than
any other national forests, but the forests themselves are threatened too.

The U.S. Forest Service says its new management plan for the Jefferson
protects the national forest. However, its plan allows:

• Logging and road-building in previously roadless areas.

• The cutting of old-growth forest to the ground.

• The elimination or degradation of habitat of rare species, such as the
Peaks of Otter salamander and Indiana bat, through logging and
road-building.

• The operation of logging, road-building and off-road vehicles in sensitive
watersheds, along steep slopes and beside streams.

Along with congressionally designated wilderness areas, our national forest
roadless areas are the healthiest and most intact forest ecosystems we have
left. During the recent development of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule,
millions of Americans -- more than for any regulation change in history --
insisted that National Forest roadless areas be protected. This included 98
percent of the 45,500 Virginians who commented. The administration ignored
this overwhelming response.

Polls indicate that most people want an end to commercial logging in
national forests, yet during the environmental impact statement analysis for
the Jefferson National Forest plan, the Forest Service refused to fully
examine an alternative that would address this demand, cutting the public
out again.

Its plan allows more than twice as much logging as occurs now. Almost every
"management prescription" in its plan is loaded with language that
ostensibly protects the "forest health" but in reality will allow further
exploitation of the Jefferson forest.

Apparently, the 1,200 miles of "permanent" Forest Service roads in the
Jefferson forest aren't enough either. The plan forecasts the construction
of another 80 miles. And those mileage figures do not include the county,
state or federal highways passing through the forest or the logging roads
that the Forest Service calls "temporary."

This issue is not just about roads and logging. The Bush administration
wants to open more public land to drilling and mining, and, through the
removal of legal restrictions, to make drilling and mining easier for
private companies. The new Jefferson National Forest plan makes as many as
492,000 acres -- about 70 percent of the forest -- available to oil, gas or
mineral development. Contrast this with the mere 3 percent of the forest
that the plan recommends for wilderness designation.

The Forest Service's own surveys show that Americans value their national
forests most for the protection of clean water and of wildlife and its
habitats. Americans want intact natural places to visit and to pass on to
future generations. They want to preserve rare species and retain the unique
qualities that private lands cannot supply.

Meeting these goals should be the priority of the Forest Service plan, but
it isn't. Instead we have a government agency that says one thing and does
another.

-- Steven Krichbaum is the conservation director for the nonprofit
forest-protection organization Wild Virginia.