and the headquarters of neighborhood groups. “One is Crowell, making major changes in forest management. And, even without Crowell, the Forest Service is doing quite well making bad decisions on its own.” O’Toole’s office is so small that the computer, with four terminals, must be squeezed into the bathroom. The arrangement works out rather well—the water in the toilet helps to settle the dust and keep the disc-drives clean. O’Toole, a forester with three years of graduate studies in economics, has been a staunch environmentalist, operating on a shoestring budget, for nine years. As a forest economist for CHEC—Cascade Holistic Economic Consultants, which also publishes a monthly review of Forest Service news—he assists state governments and natural-resource groups around the country in their opposition to the federal plans to increase the timber cut. “Timber absolutism has been pervasive in Forest Service planning" since long before the Reagan Administration stormed the seats of power, says O’Toole. Staff within the agency have always been promoted based on how much timber they cut and, according to O'Toole, the whole agency has always believed that “if you leave the forest alone, you are not managing it correctly.” Using his own computer and larger systems he has access to, O’Toole has picked apart the analyses made in numerous Forest Service plans. His work has provided the basis for successful challenges of some of those plans, including the Santa Fe National Forest fifty-year plan, which had been out for only a few months when it was rescinded last January after the Forest Service admitted it had made a “computer error.” O’Toole has found faulty assumptions about future timber prices, future tree growth, and the ability of forests to sustain high cutting levels. “I’m a neoclassical economist,” says O’Toole, who wants to see all forest resources evaluated correctly based on their relative scarcity. Spotted owls and untouched forests, recreation and wildlife are scarce commodities, in his analysis. Timber is a relatively plentiful one, and the demand can be met from private resources. To further his case, O'Toole is organizing a national symposium this fall, probably in San Francisco, to which he is inviting Forest Service staffers, state wildlife biologists, and environmental groups. “Decentralization” of forest planning will be the thrust of the discussions. O’Toole and a growing backlash movement want to wrest the decision-making away from the computer runs, away from political kingpins, and return it to the rangers and “Centralization makes the whole process more political and increases the chance that one wrong decision will be wrong euergwhere.” the public who walk the forests and know the ground intimately. “Centralization makes the whole process more political and increases the chance that one wrong decision will be wrong everywhere,” says O’Toole. “The Forest Service has always been decentralized, and it has earned a great deal of public respect over the years. But starting in the 1960s, it began to centralize-—ironically, just as many large corporations were beginning to go the other way” to gain flexibility and creativity. “The danger of centralization is the danger of Soviet agriculture,” says Yale’s Binkley. “The amount of information required is absolutely huge, and management becomes too removed from the land base. In complex systems, management needs to be at the local level. In forestry that is more important than anywhere else. The judgment of the forester on the ground is going to be the best thing for management. Computers are very useful but, in this case, the Forest Service may have gone a step too far.“ You don’t see or feel or smell the results of the decision you’re making when you computerize an ecosystem,” says Howie Wolke, a backcountry outfitter based in Jackson, Wyoming, who makes his living guiding business and professional people through the most remote portions of the national forests. He is also a founding member of Earth First!, a group of self-styled eco-guerrillas. • “Reducing the living, breathing ecosystem to mere numbers and statistics, makes harmful prodevelopment decisions a lot easier. All of these numbers are a reflection of the fact that our society has not yet learned that some things— clean air, wild land—have an inherent value of their own,” says Wolke. He sees a system based on “biocentric philosophy,” in which “any decisions are made first for the good of the biological systems, instead of what’s good for man and his economy." Every autumn, Wolke arranges a back- country trip to remind himself of the contrast between the managed forest and unfettered nature. He rises early, before dawn, assembles his group of hikers in the morning chili, and drives north on the two-lane, past the federal elk-refuge unit, where the animals will be fed through the winter with bales of hay tossed out of pickup trucks. The road climbs through Shoshone National Forest, the first forest set aside for the long-term benefit of the American people, and in the high country of the Ab- saroka Mountains the explorers turn off on a dirt road that grows rougher by the mile. Spruce, fir, and lodgepole pine crowd close to the road, which was built to access timber. It is six bumpy miles to the trail head, and there are clear-cuts all along the way. The cuts, large squares hewn out of the forest, were made decades ago, following the Forest Service management’s plans and relatively primitive computer runs formulated at the time. Many of the squares have not yet regenerated due to unfavorable conditions, fragile soils, and short growing seasons. Where growth has begun, the trees are much smaller than where the forest was left alone. Usually no wildlife can be seen from the car. At the trail head, smack in the middle of a clear-cut, Wolke and his group park, shoulder their packs, and begin to walk. They follow Bonneville Creek. The south side of the creek has been clear-cut, too, the huge stumps and slash piles still visible. The Forest Service has admitted it made some assumptions here that turned out to be wrong. Several decades will pass before a new forest springs up. Eventually, the hikers cross the cut- over patches and crest Bonneville Pass, dropping down the other side into the narrow valley of the West Fork of DuNoir Creek. The DuNoir is another world. It has never been cut, or roaded, or managed for much of anything, except as informal wilderness. Some of the old spruces have reached heights of more than one hundred feet, their trunks more than four feet around. The water in the creek flows clear and cold, as it always has. The DuNoir is being evaluated on the computers in Fort Collins and in local Forest Service offices, where timber-cutting has been recommended for the DuNoir management unit. Now the decision has shifted to the political arena. In Congress, and in public hearings and letter-writing campaigns, the debate is ranging over whether to protect the DuNoir as formal wilderness, or to open it to timber-cutting and development. In the past, the people on the DuNoir expeditions have encountered elk, coyotes, deer, moose, bighorn sheep on the high crags, and all the other wildlife that lives in the old growth. They have even spotted grizzly bear tracks in the mud along the creek. But so far, once down along the DuNoir, none of the expeditions has seen any lasting sign of man. Reprinted with permission of New Age Journal and the author. © 1984 All' rights reserved. (Rising Star Associates, 342 Western Ave. Brighton, MA 02135) •DELICATESSEN •IMPORTED BEER •HOLIDAY WINE BUYS •PARTY TRAYS Mon-Fri 8:30-6:00 Sat 8:30-3:00 7901 S.E. Stark 253-9436 HUNAN RESTAURANT Unique and Exotic Chinese cuisine specializing in spicy dishes from Hunan and Szechuan Provinces WAR Moderately Priced. WAR^ iCfiN PROTESrHEROES 515 S.W. Broadway 2 2 4 -8 0 6 3 Morgan’sAlley Building 1385 I Free parking after 6:00 p.m. City Center Parking 10th & Washington FRIDAYS- SOURPAYS-45 UNC01N HALL P5U • 130PM FOR INFORMATION 229-4154,229-4452. VISIT OUR NEW RESTAURANT HUNAN GARDEN • 11814 N.E. 8TH ST • BELLEVUE. WA. (206)451-3595 APPAREUADORNMENT Alan Costley 18 Arachne/Westover Wools 17 Attitudz 21 25 Avalon Antiques 47 Bagdad Antiques 32 Blue Gardenia 32 El Mundo (CB) 52 Gazelle 31 Flying Colors 27 Keep 'em Flying 17 La Paloma 20 Oasis Antiques 32 Sunbow Gallery 4 Who Cares 30 Woolrest 40 ART Folkcraft Gallery 32 Oregon School of Arts & Crafts 56 Sunbow Gallery 4 ART/CRAFT/OFFICE SUPPLIES Arachne/Westover Wools 17 Art Media 40 Flying Colors 27 Framewords 26 NW Working Press 53 BOOKS/MUSIC Artichoke Music 16 Cannon Beach Books (CB) 52 Classical Millenium 21 King of Rome 25 Great NW Books 21 Longfellows 51 Looking Glass Books 38 Oddyssey Book Search 51 Park Ave. Records 27 Perelandra (E) 53 Rockport Records 32 PeggySeeger. Ewan MacColl 40 CAR CARE Amazon Motors 37 EVENTS & CLASES KBOO Auction 18 Monqui 27 Pacific NW College of Art 52 Peggy Seeger/Ewan MacColl 40 Stage Door 47 FILM Cinema 7 (E) 53 Clinton St. Theatre 26 NW Film Studies Center 22 PSD Film Committee 43 FOOD—RESTAURANTS BC’s 33 Boulevard Cafe 38 Brooklyn Rose 46 Buttertoes 51 Caro Amico 44 Cassidy's 46 Dandelion Pub 17 Duchess of Burnside 20 East Ave. Tavern 40 Escape from NY Pizza 22 AD INDEX Foothill Broiler 33 Hank's Franks 18 Hawthorne Cafe 25 Hunan 43 Indigine 30 Jarra s 44 Key Largo 22 L'Auberge 18 Macheesmo Mouse 4 Metro Cafe 26 Mike's Barley Mill 32 O'Connor's 36 Papa Haydn 38 Parchman Farm 20 Pizza Merchant 26 Pharmacy Fountain 33 Pink's 25 Porretta Pizza 15 Prego 30 Riverway Inn 36 Rocking Horse 25 Sgt. Pepper's 37 Savoy Truffle 43 Sweet Basil 18 Zoo Zoo's (E) 53 FOOD—TAKE HOME Cascadian Farms 52 Escape from NY Pizza 22 Food Front 15 Macheesmo Mouse 4 Pastaworks 30 Pieri's 44 Pizza Merchant' 26 Poppers Supply 27 Porretta Pizza 15 Savoy Truffle 43 Springfield Creamery 22 Starflower 51 Suyynside Up 21 Surata Soyfoods 44 GETAWAYS Anne Hughes Guest House 17 Breitenbush 53 GIFTS & CARDS Arrangement 38 Avalon Antiques 47 Candy Basket 38 Champagne Claudia's 25 Davinci 9 Folkcraft Gallery 32 Great Wine Buys 44 King of Rome 25 Lynda Barry Calendar 52 Mary Ellen's Cards & Gifts 16 Paper Tree 27 Perelandra (E) 53 Rea! Mother Goose 18,44 Scribbles 47 k Sensonum 16 Sunbow Gallery 4 Windplay 44 HEALTH Clinic on 21st 16 Inner City Hot Springs 51 Dr. Linda Scott 51 Linda Jenkins Massage 17 Family Hot Tub 36 HOUSE & GARDEN Bagdad Antiques 32 Ellen's Flower Cad 17 Eurostyl 37 Exotic Gardens 9 Haggle Shop 33 NW Futon 21,40 Rainy Day Cactus (E) 53 Rainy Day Flowers 32 Real Mother Goose 18,44 Sandycrest Antiques 33 Urban Gardens 4 Urban Landscape 21 Woolrest 40 Yestershades 22 INSURANCE Downey 38 LEGAL ASSISTANCE Duffy, Gibson & Hicks 40 Sanders, Dixon, Nicholls 44 OUTDOORS NW Cycle 17 I Otto s Cross Country Skis 20 Windplay 44 PERSONAL TREATS Breitenbush 53 Escential Oils 27 Family Hot Tub 36 Inner City Hot Springs 51 Linda Jenkins Massage 17 Nials Up Front 33 Uncommon Scents 20 POLITICS Herb Cawthorne 11 RADIO KBOO 18 KLCC 53 Oregon Public Broadcasting 4 SPIRITS & ENTERTAINMENT Candy Basket 38 Cassidy's 46 Champagne Claudia's 25 Dandelion Pub 17 East Ave. Tavern 40 Great Wine Buys 44 Key Largo 22 Mike s Barley Mill 32 Monqui 27 Parchman Farm 20 Sgt. Pepper's 37 Satyricon 40 TECH—HIGH Aabacus Personal Computers 45 Davinci 9 Clinton St. Quarterly 43
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz