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Save and create wild forests | Reform public land management
New England's scarce and precious public land should be managed to provide wild forests, quiet forms of backcountry recreation, and habitats for animals requiring remote conditions. Public land should not be managed to meet society's demand for wood, provide opportunities for intensive motorized recreation, or create habitats for species preferring "edges" and openings, because these are abundant and easily provided by private land. Reform of agency policies and practices is essential. For example, federal land managers continue to build roads into remote areas and use industrial logging practices that harm the environment and hemorrhage red ink. (According to the Forest Service's own estimates, the agency lost $576 per acre logged on the Green Mountain National Forest in FY95.) Also, riders of motorized, off-road vehicles illegally use the national forest and erode the soil, pollute streams, and disturb the tranquility of people and wildlife. We hope you will join our efforts to reform public land management. ACTION PLAN Our program goals are to:
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© 1999-2002 Forest Watch and artists/contributors • Privacy Policy • Contact Us |
Public land should be managed to provide benefits that private land does not. This is simply good public policy, especially in the relatively densely settled Northern Forest states--Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York--where public forests amount to about 12 percent of total forested land. Across the nation, public forests amount to about 32 percent of the total and in some regions as much as 80 percent.
Eliminate all industrial-scale logging primarily aimed at timber production;