Alliance opposes timber sale in Medicine Bow
Source: casperstartribune.net, by PHIL WHITE
February 05, 2007
FOX PARK - A Laramie-based conservation group has appealed the Medicine Bow National Forest's timber sale plan for Devil's Gate 10 miles west of here, claiming forest managers should have conducted a full environmental impact analysis.
National forest leaders proposes to allow removal of 11 million board-feet of timber, much of it from 283 acres of clearcutting in an area between the Savage Run and Platte River wilderness areas east of the Platte.
The Laramie-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance claims that scientific studies do not support the forest's conclusion that removal of the timber will help stop the spread of lodgepole pine and spruce beetles and mistletoe fungus.
According to the national forest, the proposal "was developed primarily to address forest health issues related to insect and disease as well as provide sustainable timber products." The forest argues that "prolonged drought conditions throughout the central Rocky Mountains over the past several years have increased stress on trees, increased competition for moisture among the trees, and reduced the ability of trees to produce defensive chemicals that may kill beetles as they attack trees."
As a result, Medicine Bow project leader Melissa Martin said a beetle epidemic in the area has the potential to affect thousands of "relatively healthy" acres nearby and greatly increase the potential for large-scale wildfires.
Responding to comments by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and others, the forest scaled back its original 552 acres scheduled for clearcutting, removing some plots in old growth and winter range. The Game and Fish expressed concern about habitat fragmentation from roads and past harvesting, and also urged the forest to retain mature forest stands as habitat for pine marten, goshawk and woodpeckers.
Duane Short, conservation advocate for the alliance, said that insect and mistletoe infestations "are natural processes that have occurred for millennia, so it's pointless to cut down all of these trees. Even dead trees provide habitat for hole-nesting and other birds and mammals, and when they fall they play a vital role in the forest regeneration process, which is often overlooked."
Tom Troxel, director of the Intermountain Forest Association in Rapid City, S.D., said the national forest is mandated by Congress to produce timber and that the Devil's Gate proposal was a "reasoned analysis that conforms with the forest plan they just revised." He said the plan "represents an effort to harvest trees most susceptible to bark beetles and get those stands regenerating." Clearcutting, Troxel said, "is a perfectly valid management tool which the Medicine Bow has been using for years and which has produced terrific regeneration."
Troxel agreed, however, that the timber sale was unlikely to halt the spread of bark beetles. "There are so many beetles down there right now, my guess is they'll get into the wilderness areas regardless of these timber sales," he said.
Short said that he was pleased that the amount of clearcutting was reduced, but said the forest has not stated clearly how many of the trees will be left standing after these operations. Short disagreed with the forest's assertion that the insect infestations will lead to more numerous or intense fires.
Short also said the alliance has recently submitted more than 800 comments opposing clearcutting in Medicine Bow.
Martin said her agency gathered a team of experts, including several USFS entomologists, and put together a plan meeting several forest objectives. She said the 800 comments were postcards not directed specifically to the Devil's Gate Project. "We received only nine comment letters from our original scoping notice on Devil's Gate, and only 66 when we sent out our draft," Martin said.
Two of the 66 comments were from other agencies. All but one of the remaining comments indicated an opposition to clearcutting. "Those comments," Martin said, "were very repetitive. It's not a voting contest."
