ECOLOGY, FOREST ECONOMY THE SAME ROOTS· Steven Ames s ""S -a if o :> In the Pacific Northwest, it's a long way from current extractive forestry practices to the Ecotopian vision of a truly sustainable forestry economy. What we've been allowing has destroyed landforms and watersheds, eliminated wilderness and genetic diversity, and placed blind faith in environmentally disastrous chemical-intensive management techniques. Tree-mining is a dead end propposition. What we need is a forest economy which implicitly respects and nurtures the forest environment-minimizing c1earcuts, replacing chemicals with human labor, protecting diverse ecosystems. One big stumbling block in getting there has been our vision's real lack of hard numbers. Policy-makers want proof that good forest ecology won't bankrupt us. Fortunately, that information is starting to come in, thanks to the sound values and serious work of people who start with the assumption that nothing pays better than an infinitely renewable resource base. In the long run ecology is a very economic proposition. As the following reports show, it's about time we started to bank on it. -SA The U.S. Forest Service's second major Roadless Area Review and Evaluation process, ironically anagrammed RARE 11, is now completed. Of 62 million acres ofroadless and wild lands considered for continued protection under Wilderness designation, perhaps only 15 million will be preserved as such. Of tbe balance, 36 million acres are ready to be released for logging, mil1f1lg and other development. Among the rationale cited by federal officials is the "economic hazard" of creating too much wilderness. An Economic View of RARE 11, Randal Lee O'Toole, Cascade Holistic Economic Consultants, July 1978, S5 pp., $3.00 from: Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group 918 S.W. Yamhill Portland, OR 97205 It's unfortunate that An Economic View of RARE II has not been given more credence by feds and politicians. In this report Randy O'Toole has used solid economics turned around to show that logging priorities promoted by the U.S. Forest Service are more than environmentally spendthrift-they are cost ineffective. Focusing on Oregon, where 3.1 million acres of roadless land have been brought under scrutiny, this study compares the benefits and costs of development (the timber industry's willingness to pay for timber v. the costs of building roads, sophisticated logging systems and fire management) with one easily quantified benefit of protecting roadless areas (the value of primitive recreation access-demand for which is growing five times faster than demand for timber). Clearly, primitive recreation access is a non-market commodity for which people are willing to payand continue paying. When compared to net timber values and the marginal economies of second growth crops, at least 70 percent and more of Oregon's roadless areas would maximize economic benefits if allocated to wilderne~s designation. In addition, if monies now invested in roadles$ area development were spent on intensive management practices like "pre-commercial thinning" all roadless areas could be saved and Forest Service timber harvests could be maintained at no extra cost. Sadly, the Forest Service has only seen fit to recommend that 14 percent of Oregon's roadless areas be designated wilderness. They and wilderness advocates everywhere need to take a better look at the straightforward analysis this economic perspective provides. In wilderness there is value- of many kinds. Long Canyon and the Wilderness Issue, a film by Don Cambou and Tom Sturdevant, 16mm color, 58-112 minutes, $75 rental or $850 purchase from: Don Canibou/Range of Light Productions Rt. 1, Box 546 Bonners Ferry, ID 83805 free rentals to Idaho residents from: Idaho State Library Film Dept. 325 W. State St. Boise, ID 83702 In northern Idaho's Selkirk Mountains, Long Canyon remains unique. A densely forested granite canyon 20 miles north of the lumber-dependent town of Bonners Ferry, it is the last major wild area in the Idaho panhandle. Its 100,000 acres of pure, undisturbed unroaded-and therefore unloggedwatershed provides a delicate climax habitat in which endangered biotic communities continue to survive: mountain caribou feed on a rare lichen which grows only on old growth trees. Don Cambou's impeccably thorough film explores the To-Log-or-Not-to-Log controversy which has been foisted upon
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