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Show JULY High UINTAS Continued from page new-old, forest. It strophic in check, it — but of green trees or prevent cutting in roadless areas, regardless of ecological sensitivities. What it does prevent, however, are administrative appeals of any decision to cut timber. Each timber sale under this act, by definition, is permissible as it pertains to environmental law. Public review is limited to a paltry 20-to-30 day review. The forest “health” issue was initiated by the Forest Service following World War II, when forest management ignored or failed to understand the inherent natural process that built forests over eons of time. Naturally occurring fires and insects create gaps in the forest which allow regeneration, assist in nutrient recycling, create wildlife habitat, and create the patchiness that adds to the diversity inherent to natural “integral” forests. These gaps are engines of creation. Step by mysterious step, the forest builds itself in places and falls apart in others with the help of such things as bugs, mistletoe, fire, wind and time This is the forest and the natural succession that is part of its life-cycle. This integral forest is diverse in age, structure and his highlights the difference between the so-called “healthy” 11 sale” does not preclude the harvesting composition. It is a scraggly-straight, stunted-tall is a diverse forest, with catafires and insect outbreaks held defined not by what we do to by what it is. Creek, Burnt helps define the heart of the unpro- After decades of surveyors, bulldozers, tant for winter range. bridges, The Forest directly impact graveling, and trucks, the forest is altered. Ecological and evolutionary processes do not place a system in distress. The difference between distress, which undresses a forest and its biotic integrity, and inherent stress, which builds a forest with its complexity, is critical. The forest “health” crisis is not a crisis of nature but a crisis of inappropriate human management practices. In a 1993 Forest Service Landstat satellite photo, clearcuts on the Uintas are easily seen. Now, more clear-cuts are on the way - many of them in roadless areas. The Forest Service has conceded the foundation for most future timber harvesting will be in current roadless areas simply because other timber potential has already been overharvested. The most notable sale area includes Round Park/Lost Creek, wild roadless country on Thompson a The 104th Congress passed a "salvage" logging bill to gut the national forests at taxpayer expense. And the new grazing "reform" bill gives welfare ranchers control of the public lands. Regulatory “reform” was written by lobbyists for polluters. The Republican-controlled Congress attacked our national parks and wilderness areas, and tried to weaken efforts to save America's endangered species. This isn't what most Republicans want! Republicans for Environmental Protection was created to keep alive the GOP tradition of conservation begun by President Teddy Roosevelt. REP is already in 42 states-- a Utah chapter has started and we invite you to join us! Republicans for Environmental Protection Box 7073/ Deerfield, IL 60015 Phone: 847-940-0320 E-mail: MarREP@aol.com Creek, existing oil fields. The US Geological harvesting On fir Mountain, (USGS) is the High the north forests of Uintas are the Widdop a small roadless area impor- reports say majority of the mountain the vast has zero or Even the 1994 Forest Service North Slope Oil and Gas Leasing environmental The southern boundary of the proWilderss. Douglass grading, North tected North Slope. ber. The trees grow rapidly and are of the same age and structure. Timber producing forests do not mimic nature. culverts, and low potential for oil and gas discovery. posed hardening, chainsaws, loaders, tractors Fork Survey forest and the integral forest: “Healthy” Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich promised "a new environmentalism," but his GOP Environmental Task Force's "vision statement" is loaded with code words from the "wise use” movement. PO. Kabell Fork of Sheep Creek. This undulating expanse of old pine forests, open parklands, wet meadows, bogs and untouched churning streams _ literally forests are sought after to produce !um- EARTH TO NEWT! RE 1996 impact statement noted little chance of discovery of oil and gas in the North Slope roadless area. In fact, the entire North Slope recoverable oil estimates range from a paltry US demand of nine minutes to two days of oil. Service is proposing to 2,218 acres of roadless Despite this, the agency recently country on Kabell Creek and the wild proposed to lease almost 200,000 acres of Forest Service lands for oil forests around Beaver Meadows Reservoir, including Bull Park and the exploration, thus assuring the primary value of those lands is not wilderness North but potential for oil and gas development. and Middle Forks of Creek. These forests are home marten, and goshawk, a host Sheep for pine black bear, moose of other species requiring untouched wild forests. Largest Timber Sale The agency proposes to harvest almost 2,200 acres adjacent to other roadless lands for the largest timber sale ever done on the Uintas - nearly 21, million board feet. Even the Forest Service admits this proposal significant- ly fragments natural wild forests. For example, the Roadshed timber will harvest trees within and around other already harvested units. But the sale is ecologically disturbing, because it will further isolate the old growth forest by intensifying the impacts surrounding the core of the remaining wild land. The Roadshed area is often called “The Elephant’s Trunk” because it extends from the East Fork of Sheep Creek to Flaming Gorge. Its value as a wild reserve is crucial. The area is a haven for goshawk, three-toed woodpeckers and flammulated owls. Forest planning regulations require the Forest Service to evaluate roadless areas for their potential addition to the National Wilderness Preservation System during the upcoming forest planning process. Roadless areas logged prior to this administrative process, however, don’t have to be evaluated. This allows the Forest Service to improperly reduce the acreage of adjacent roadless areas and to fragment these wildlands sufficiently so they won't qualify for potential wilderness designation. It is a vicious and intentional circle couched in “forest health.” Questionable Oil Drilling There are two existing oil fields on the North Slope of the Uintas. In thirty years, the Bridger Lake Field has produced only 12 million barrels of oil (about 20 hours of US 1987, the Hickey-Table field in the lower Henry’s fragmented the character drainage with additional demand). In Mountain oil Fork forever of this lower roads, drilling pads and collection plants. Most geologists Uintas’ pre-Cambrian significant agree origin oil reserves that the precludes south of the Uinta Oil Leases Challenged The Utah Wilderness Association challenged the oil lease proposal. The Forest Service was forced to withdraw its decision on oil exploration in the roadless area and to prepare a separate analysis of oil and gas potential in roadless areas. If the Forest Service understands the simplest level of ecosystem analysis and principles of conservation biology, it will look at the roadless area as an integral and functioning landscape and not allow such leases. This analysis is expected any day. Leasing means development. Early in 1994, Amerac Energy Company was authorized to construct well site and road four miles into the roadless Main Fork of the Bear River at 10,000 feet. The proposal calls for a 138-foot tall drilling rig to drill 17,000 feet below a three-acre well pad with its attendant toxic mud pit. A crew of 55 will drive 15 loads daily for four weeks. Diesel engines will run the drilling rig and generate 24 hours of halogen light per day to ensure that workers can see. This is tragic for the forest and the animals which inhabit it. After a Utah Wilderness Association appeal was turned down late last fall, Amerac created a roadway up the quiet and wild Main Fork. Now that area is defined by roadcuts, trucks, graders, fences, culverts and drilling rigs. Americ expects to finish the project this summer. But wildness is fragile and easily lost, and perhaps easily for- gotten. A Uintas vision is braced by Aldo Leopold’s profound advice: “A thing is right when integrity, it tends stability and to preserve beauty the of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” Imagine an integral mountain defined by wildness, not board feet or animal units or full creels. Imagine a mountain defined by the creation of life, not the production of resources. @ If you are interested in pursuing these and many other High Uintas issues, contact Dick Carter at P.O. Box 72, Hyrum, Ut., 84319. |