EDITORIAL Lynchburg News & Advance 10/7/2003

The George Washington and Jefferson National Forests are natural resources
that help contribute to Central Virginia's already high quality of life. The
two national forests span the crest of the Appalachians, the oldest
mountains in America, and cover more than 1.5 million acres.

The spectacular beauty of the forests offer unparalleled recreational
opportunities, including hiking, camping, hunting and fishing. The forests
are the natural habitat of black bears, flying squirrels, peregrine falcons
and wood turtles, among dozens of other species, many of which are becoming
endangered.

Just as importantly, the national forests provide drinking water to many
Virginia cities and towns, including Lynchburg, which gets its water from
the Pedlar Reservoir in the George Washington National Forest in Amherst
County. Eleven municipalities, including Staunton and Harrisonburg, depend
on the national forests for their drinking water.

So the value of the national forests to the region and to Virginia is
without question.

But environmentalists and others are concerned that new legislation being
pushed by the Bush administration will give the timber industry a stronger
hand in setting a future course for the forests.

Representatives of Virginia Forest Watch were here recently to call
attention to the legislation known as the Healthy Forest Initiative. Now no
one could quibble with legislation going by such a benign name. It's sort of
like the education bill the administration is promoting, known as No Child
Left Behind. But that's not a universal truth.

The Forest Watch folks believe the Healthy Forest Initiative may be more
healthy for some - especially the timber industry - than for others.

While timber has flowed out of the national forests for decades, the
environmental group says much timber, some of it old growth timber, remains
to be protected. It worries that the new legislation will make further
inroads, literally, into the forests.

Jake Krelick of the National Forest Protection Alliance, who took part in a
protest on Main Street last month, said commercial logging in the national
forests makes no sense.

"We basically feel it's a money-losing program," he said, noting that timber
sales from national forests have a net loss of $1.3 billion a year and
represent only 2 percent of the lumber the United States consumes. One of
the reasons that logging on national forest lands is a losing proposition
for the government is that it pays for the roads into the areas where timber
is being cut.

And the U.S. Forest Service continues to build more roads into the wildlife
areas. The George Washington forest has about 1,700 miles of permanent
roads.

The environmental groups also lament the small amount of wilderness being
protected in the national forests. Only about 4 percent of the George
Washington forest is protected as wilderness, meaning no roads at all. About
9 percent of the Jefferson forest is similarly protected. Forest Watch
points out that by comparison, some 18 percent of other national forests
have a wilderness designation that protects them from roads and the vehicles
that travel on them.

Concerns about wildfires in the West have also driven the Healthy Forest
Initiative by allowing the timber industry to thin out areas around towns or
subdivisions, which is fine. That gets rid of the undergrowth that feeds
fires, making them more dangerous. But critics of the legislation say the
timber interests are negotiating deeper penetration into the forests in
exchange for clearing out the undergrowth within a mile or so of populated
or built-up areas.

Give the folks at Virginia Forest Watch and other environmental groups
credit for bringing these concerns to the attention of those in Central
Virginia, including Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-6th, who is chairman of the House
Agriculture Committee, which oversees policies set for the Forest Service.

If the timber interests are gaining the upperhand, as critics of the new
legislation say, now is the time to correct that imbalance - not after they
have performed their handiwork in the pristine forests. Those national
forests are for everyone. Let's keep it that way.