Logging issue needs addressed

When the Bush Administration back-pedaled on protecting the last remaining wild areas in America's national forests, many of us in the scientific community took notice. For much of the past century, the Forest Service, entrusted as the institutional steward of our national forests, focused its management on an industrial-scale logging program. The result of the massive logging and road construction program was to damage watersheds, destroy wildlife habitat and imperil plant and animal species.\nWe urge President George W. Bush to shift away from the damaging commercial logging program and focus on a program to restore America's national forests.\nOur national forests are worth more than their trees. Some 3,000 species of fish and wildlife and 10,000 plants species -- many of them endangered -- make their homes in national forests. As the scientists assert, scientific research has repeatedly reaffirmed the tenet that wildlife need an abundant, healthy and intact environment to survive. Unless the destruction of fragile ecosystems is immediately reversed through scientifically based restoration and recovery, the damage will be irrevocable.\nThe continued logging of our national forests also wastes American tax dollars and diminishes the possibilities of future economic benefits. The Forest Service lost $2 billion on the commercial logging program from 1992 to 1997. Annually, timber produces roughly $4 billion while recreation, clean water, unroaded areas and fish and wildlife provide a combined total of $224 billion to the American economy. Forests purify our drinking water -- 60 million Americans get their drinking water from national forests. When the dramatic values of ecological goods and services are taken into account, it is clear that protecting national forests creates more economic benefits than continued logging.\nAmericans love to hike, camp, fish, hunt and canoe in our national forests. With more than 4,000 campgrounds, 121,000 miles of trails and 96 wild and scenic rivers, they are natural treasures we should work to protect and restore.\nThere are alternatives to traditional timber-based products that consumers can choose, including recycled products, kenaf, hemp and agricultural fiber. Using tree-free paper will help to preserve our national forest heritage and lessen the impact we have on the environment.\nDecades of destructive logging have taken a harsh toll on the land. It is time we actively promote the restoration of these forests. This can be accomplishedby shifting subsidies away from logging and into a program that allows local contractors to be paid to restore, instead of damage, national forests. Investing in ecosystem health would provide clean water, enhanced fish and wildlife habitat, recreation and increased jobs and economic benefits.\nAs scientists and Americans, we care about our national forests. We must take proactive steps to end commercial logging on our national forests and protect our wild forest heritage so generations of Americans will be able to go hiking, hunting, fishing, bird watching and exploring in our national forests. We hope the Bush administration takes notice of this letter and acts to protect and not despoil these natural treasures.\nAnne Ehrlich is Associate director of Stanford University's Center for Conservation Biology.\nDavid R. Foster is director of the Harvard Forest.\nPeter Raven is director of the Missouri Botanical Garden.\n