Forest Service issues directive

In a speech that conveyed a clear challenge to President-elect George W. Bush and his incoming administration, outgoing U.S. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck unveiled an initiative Jan. 8 that calls for the protection of the nation's remaining old growth forests. \nSpeaking at a conference at Duke University, Dombeck said the time has come for the Forest Service to take the "long view" and enact policies that prohibit the harvesting of old growth trees, according to the Associated Press. \nOld growth forests are stands of trees that are about 200 years old or older. \nDeclaring that "reverence for ancient trees is ingrained in our culture," Dombeck outlined a series of new Forest Service directives designed to protect the nation's remaining old growth forests. \nAccording to the directives, each of the 155 national forests managed by the U.S. Forest Service will be required to inventory, map, protect, sustain and enhance old growth ecosystems. \nSean Cosgrove, forest issues specialist for the Washington D.C. Sierra Club, explained that the directives require the Forest Service to determine the extent and pattern of old growth forests in the past, and to develop plans to facilitate the development of old growth in the future. \nDombeck pledged that the Forest Service will work with local communities to prioritize and implement old growth restoration projects, which he said would create jobs. He said selective slashing and burning could still be utilized in areas where "uncharacteristic" wildfire risks threaten old growth resources and values. \nBut specialists are skeptical about the staying power of the directive. \n"This is a more complex policy than any of the earlier Clinton initiatives," said Matthew Auer of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. "The Senate sub-committee will look at it as making a policy change in the Forest Service manual and in this case they have the jurisdiction to review it." \nConservation groups hailed Dombeck's announcement, the latest in a flurry of 11th hour environmental initiatives put forth by the outgoing Clinton administration. \n"This is a significant step towards restoring old growth in the Eastern U.S., which has been nearly eliminated," said Kristen Sykes of the American Lands Alliance. "With only 1 percent of the eastern old growth left, few people know or appreciate how magnificent the forests east of the Mississippi really can be." \nPublic opinion polls released by the Sierra Club have shown a majority of Americans want greater protections for national forests, and especially for the nation's remaining ancient forests. Those opinions are reflected by the drop in market demand for old growth wood.\nThough conserving old growth forests has gathered national momentum through public opinion, conservationists predict Bush might draw on local support in timber areas to overturn the initiative. \nVicky Meretsky, a conservation biologist at IU, said she thinks "this initiative will have numerous enemies and they will come up with every possible legal method of overturning it." \n"It doesn't yet carry the force of law," she said.\nBut the case is one of preserving old growth forests for ecological and aesthetic reasons. \n"Old growth trees are a very small percentage of American forest cover, so they cannot be considered as potential carbon sinks to reduce temperatures," Auer said.\nThe Forest Service's initiative to curtail the harvesting of old growth trees comes just days after President Bill Clinton signed an executive order prohibiting commercial logging and road building on nearly 60 million acres of untouched Forest Service land. \nThe initiative will still have to withstand an ideologically split Congress and a possible veto from President Bush.