Groups Protest Forest Roadblock Government Critique Represents Logging, Far-Reaching Concerns

Local foresters joined elected officials and representatives of labor, recreation and grass-roots groups at a public meeting to protest a Forest Service proposal to end road building in national forest roadless areas.

“A road management review makes sense, but it is not necessary to suspend operations in roadless areas to do so. The Forest Service fails to adequately justify why it must suspend operations in roadless areas,” said Dave Van De Graaff, a Boise Cascade timberlands manager and member of the Intermountain Forest Industry Association.

“Serious forest health problems exist in both roaded and unroaded forests,” he said at Saturday’s meeting. “The moratorium’s one-size-fits-all approach prevents the implementation of responsible management plans to reduce the risk of wildfires, and insect and disease outbreaks. That kind of management restriction is bad for our forests, not to mention every person, community, plant and animal that depends upon the health and sustainability of our forest lands.”

Van De Graaff said he has not forgotten the conditions on the Boise and Payette National Forests before the firestorms of 1992, when more than 400,000 acres burned.

“Not only were the trees lost, but the watersheds suffered tremendous erosion, wildlife and livestock died, and people … lost acres and acres of recreation opportunities,” he said.

“Additional catastrophic fires will surely result if the Forest Service continues to introduce policies which do nothing to restore ecosystem health,” Van De Graaff said.