“yield only $4.6 - $10.6 million extra a year in revenue”
“estimated net value $4 billion to $27 billion”
“Trading portions of the invaluable resource... for meager short-term gains”
“simply bad business”
What it names
Works cited
DellaSala et al. 2011
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I am strongly opposed to the proposal to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
The USFS projects that the removal of the roadless rule would yield only $4.6 - $10.6 million extra a year in revenue for the timber industry. In contrast, a report titled "Roadless Areas and Clean Water" by members of the Geos Institute describes that "National forests provide about 14 percent of the nation’s runoff with an estimated net value $4 billion to $27 billion." Trading portions of the invaluable resource that is fresh water for meager short-term gains in the timber industry is simply bad business.
Attached is photo of an old growth forest in Larch Mountain in the Columbia River Gorge and Mount Hood National Forest, Oregon. It is part of a roadless area currently protected by the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule that could be placed in jeopardy if this proposal is approved. Image by user Nickpdx on Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.
The song "Big Yellow Taxi" originally by Joni Mitchell in 1970 comes to mind with the following lyrics:
"They took all the trees, and put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them
No, no, no
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot"
Readers are encouraged to take a listen to the version created by Counting Crows.
The fight to protect the old growth that is unimaginably rare in first world developed countries is not a new one. It's our job today to work to conserve the natural resource that generations struggled to protect in the past. "Wilderness is a resource which can shrink but not grow... creation of new wilderness in the full sense of the word is impossible." Aldo Leopold, A Sand Country Almanac, 1949.
To protect our fresh water supplies, the deregulation of logging old-growth forests as outlined in the document FS-2025-0001-223869 must not be brought to pass.
Thank you for reading.
DellaSala, D.A., J.R. Karr, D. Olson, R. Nauman, J. Leonard. 2011. Roadless Areas and Clean Water. Geos Institute, Ashland, OR (www.geosinstitute.org)
By w:User:Nickpdx - w:Image:DSC03591.JPG, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2828857