The June 11 editorial, "Trees for the future" was misleading and fell far short of telling the real story about National Forest management.
Unfortunately, our national forests, which at one time were the standard of excellence for sustainable forest management, are now a liability rather than an asset to our nation's economy and environment.
Lack of tree thinning and harvesting caused by lawsuits and dysfunctional federal regulations created a national forest system that suffers from unprecedented insect infestations, disease and fire damage.
A prime example is Alaska. According to federal inventory figures, Alaska contains 127 million acres of forest land, while timber harvests and tree thinning are only allowed on 12 million acres. The other 115 million acres, or 91%, are designated in a way that prevents sustainable forest management.
As a result, the forested mountainsides are red with insect-killed trees creating tinder dry forest fire conditions. Inventory data reveals Alaska grows 223 million cubic feet of timber each year and loses 205 million cubic feet, or 92%, from insect and disease damage.
The same scenario of neglect is repeated across the United States in every state that contains a national forest, including Wisconsin.
In Wisconsin, the Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest contains 1.2 million acres of forested land. One- third (440,000 acres) of the forest is off- limits to sustainable forest management practices. In addition, lawsuits and unworkable federal regulations prevent the Forest Service from meeting its required harvest on the remaining 760,000 acres.
In Wisconsin, the Forest Service owns 10% of the state's forest land but provides only 4% of the raw forest products used by our industry. In comparison, Wisconsin counties own 15% of our state's forest land and provide 17% of the raw forest products.
Why can our counties provide jobs, recreation, biodiversity and healthy forests, but the Forest Service can't?
It is because the county forests are controlled by the local people who have the greatest stake in their management, not some bureaucrat 2,000 miles away.
It is because the Forest Service is strapped with rules allowing anyone to sue them for mismanagement, and the taxpayers not only pick up the legal fees incurred by the Forest Service but also the legal fees of the appellant.
Suing the forest service is a multimillion-dollar business for legal firms because the courts have twisted the intent of the National Environmental Policy Act way beyond its original purpose. NEPA requires the Forest Service conduct an analysis on each timber sale for its cumulative effect on a wide range of species and habitats. However, NEPA does not require the forest service to do an analysis of the environmental cumulative effect of not adequately thinning their forest land.
Logging roads are just another excuse by anti-logging groups to prohibit sustainable forest management of our national forests. If they are too costly to build, let the professional logging contractors build them and bid on the timber sale accordingly, like the county and state forests do.
Logging roads in Wisconsin are constructed following best management practices, used for a year or two, put to rest and not needed for logging for the next 20 to 60 years, depending upon the tree species present. Prohibiting logging road construction serves no environmental purpose.
Bottom line is that the federal government owns 25% of our nation's forest land and over 50% of our softwood timber supply. As a major forest landowner, it has an obligation to help meet our nation's demand for forest products and maintain its lands in a healthy productive condition.
It is time the president and Congress to either transfer the management of federal forest lands to state and local governments, like most other countries have done, or overhaul the outdated and ineffective federal forest policies that are choking our national forests to death.Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
