Streamlining Management to Improve Forest Health
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A Message from FFRC Executive Director Bill Imbergamo
A trust approach on lands that can support commercial timber production would focus on the small portion of the National Forest System which is supposed to be producing timber. Lands which have been set-aside after countless hours of public involvement, Congressional review and official designation as wilderness would remain off-limits to commercial harvest.
The American public would no longer be forced to bankroll a litigation-driven analysis machine, and instead could spend the few dollars available to actually improve the condition of the National Forest System.
The situation currently facing the Forest Service is akin to a mouse dropped into a maze with a piece of cheese at the exit. Only in this case, the exit has been sealed, the cheese removed, and the maze set on fire. While we can expect the mouse to work very hard, we can’t expect a good outcome. Unfortunately, the maze here is the tangle of laws – and their interpretation in the courts – that Congress passed. Only Congress can provide an exit.
The current system is unsustainable, socially, economically, and ecologically. Piecemeal reforms hold little promise. The opportunity to change the management paradigm is here.