WMPZ "Preferred Option" and "Existing
Management" maps include a chart of forest acres organized by
Management Area type. MFMU has graphed those numbers to show the new
trends in forest management on these forests. KIPZ published an
excel file that shows current plan, Starting Option and Draft Plan
acreages for each Management Area
"Old" means existing management and
"New" refers to the Preferred Option or Draft Plan. "General
Forest" includes all categories of management intensity.
"Roadless" includes all categories of wilderness including
WildLands on the Kootenai as well
as research natural areas and backcountry.
As you can see, general forest management is decreasing
while unmanaged roadless acreages are increasing.
KIPZ has provided a >>>>chart
that shows the change in management emphasis. The old emphasis
was on timber harvest and mitigation for environmental damage. The
new emphasis is on restoration to pre-harvest?? or some other standard
rather than mitigation. Timber harvest and fire suppression become
tools rather than a desirable ends for economic or social reasons.
Motorized use is now seen as unsuitable in many areas.
It is both sad and outrageous that KIPZ has attempted to
legitimize the myth that restoration and recreation will replace the
loss of timber jobs in local economies.
"Local jobs and income generated
through timber harvest, restoration activities, and recreation may be at
levels similar to current."
The truth is that restoration activities
must be paid for by the taxpayer, at least in part. The
taxpayer share of restoration will increase as the timber industry
infrastructure continues to shrink. The taxpayer will never fund
restoration at the levels necessary to replace timber industry
employment. The reason there is such a backlog of unmaintained roads
on our forests is because the funds generated by timber sales to
maintain those roads are no longer available and Congress will not
replace those monies with tax money. Since recreation jobs pay
about half of what timber jobs pay, they cannot fill the void of lost
timber jobs.
In reality it will not take as long as the chart shows
because if this trend continues much longer, USFS managers will have
nothing to do other than monitor wildlife and taxpayers are not likely to
fund the USFS at anything like current levels. The ensuing budget
crunch, which has already begun, will force staff reductions and lead to
even less management. Eventually the USFS will no longer have a
reason to exist and these public lands will be taken over by the National
Park Service and managed exclusively as wildlands with non-motorized
recreation.
