We are now down to the last 10% of the ancient forests of the Northwest.
These are forest on public lands - your lands - and they and their
inhabitants are threatened by continuing logging. If you would like to
have a little of the original ancient forests of the northwest preserved
for their own sake, for the plants and animals that inhabit them, for
your pleasure and interest if you travel that way, and for numerous
other benefits the ensue, support The Wilderness Society to work with
Congress, mobilize activists, inform the public about the destruction
of their forests, and protect public lands. TWS proposes that the 
following letter be sent by everyone wishing to have a remnant of the
ancient forests available to the public, to the Forest Service:

U. S. Forest Service
c/o Interagency SEIS Team
P.O. Box 3623
Portland   OR 97208-3623

To Whom it May Concern:

Alternative 9, the preferred alternative in the Draft Supplemental
Environmental Impact Statement on Management of Habitat for Species
Within the Range of the Northern Spotted Owl, does not adequately
protect fish and wildlife species or forest values dependent upon a
sustainable Ancient Forest ecosystem in Oregon, Washington and
California. The followong recommended changes are consistent with
credible science and in compliance with national environmental laws:

  *  An actual Ancient Forest Reserve that protects all ecologically
     significant old-growth must be created. The Reserve system must
     prohibit all logging related activities, such as logging operations
     for salvage, timber thinning and road building.

  *  Additional protection is needed for streams and fish habitat outside
     Reserve areas.

  *  Federal lands outside Forest Reserve should not be sacrificed. The
     lands should be managed to provide habitat conditions for spotted
     owl dispersal. In addition, non-Reserve lands should be managed
     on a minimum of 180-year timber cutting rotations.

  *  The plan must insure that fish and wildlife species have a "very
     high" (95% probability) chance to survive over a 100-year period.
     The National Forest Management Act states that federal managers
     must insure a species survival and viability.

  *  The process for making decisions about the disposition of land 
     should reaffirm the right of every American to participate fully
     in decisions affecting our public lands.

It is critical to the protection of the last 10% of our Ancient Forests
and the species that depend on them that these recommendations be
adopted.

Sincerely
   (Signed)        Append printed name and address.

12 responses total.

   Hear, hear.

Very interesting.

But, did you write?

Well, trees sure are disappearing like nobody's business here in the
Pacific Northwest.  If you've been through you know what I mean...
each year fewer and fewer forested areas, and more bald mountains.

This is a big reason I am interested in the use of hemp for paper, cloth
and particle board.  Hemp is a highly renewable, amazingly strong fiber crop
which is currently used a great deal in China, Eastern Europe, and France.
I want to learn about making paper, cloth and pressboard out of hemp.
Are any of you reading this knowledgeable, or interested?  

This is the apology part.  I apologize for being a still-naive user
of the Internet and Unix, and I don't know how properly to start a
discussion group, or conference.  I promise to learn soon however,
especially if someone tells me!  Thank you.

Conferences are the *major* topic areas, and require some effort to
start. You need to develop a proposal, and post that as in Item in
the coop conference. If enough people salute, a new conference can
be started. I am currently working on starting a Books conferences.
Take a look in coop, to see how that is going.

A conference is divided into Items. This is in Item 9 in the environment
conference. It is easier to start an Item - the command (at an Ok:
prompt) is    enter   (and then follow the lead). New items, however,
should be separate topics that fit into the conference theme. If there
is already an Item for a topic, don't start a new Item (you can see
all the Items in a conference with the command    browse     at an Ok:).
    
Since the above doesn't concern ancient forests, it counts as "drift" -
but I was so happy to see you here, that I thought I better encourage
your participation! Your topic of replacing wood fibre with hemp
fibre is certainly aropos to environmental issues. One could look
at it as a special case, or a member of a larger category of resource
substitution. An item on replacing wood with hemp might not last
long: resource substitution would have lots of avenues to follow 
(starting with hemp). 

I am interested in what you have to say on this. I'm a chemical
engineer and know a little about paper making, but almost nothing
about the merits of hemp in this regard. 

thank you, rcurl!

From The New York Times, 11 October 1994, page 1:

      OREGON, FOILING FORECASTERS, THRIVES AS IT PROTECTS OWLS

    SPRINGFIELD, Ore., Oct. 5 - By now, the timber communities of
  Oregon were supposed to be ghost towns. There was going to be an
  epidemic of foreclosures, a recession so crippling it would mean
  "we'll be up to our neck in owls, and every millworker will be out
  of a job," as President George Bush predicted two years ago while
  campaigning in the Northwest.

    Politicians in both parties agreed. The villain was the northern
  spotted owl, an endangered bird fond of the same ancient national
  forests desired by loggers. When restrictions on logging were ordered
  in 1991 to protect the bird, Michael Burrill spoke for many of his
  fellow Oregon tember mill owners when he said, "They must created
  Appalachia in the Northwest."

    But economic calamity has never looked so good. Three years into
  a drastic curtailment of logging in Federal forests, Oregon, the top
  timber-producing state, has posted its lowest unemployment rate in a
  generation, just over 5 percent.

    What was billed as an agaonizing choice of jobs versus owls has
  proved to be neither, thus far. Oregon is still the nation's timber
  bastion, producing more than 5 billion boar feet a years....But
  instead of using 300-year-old trees from public land to make 2-by-4's,
  mills are relying on wood from tree farms, most of them belonging
  to private landowners. And the mills are getting more out of the
  timber, using parts that used to be discarded.

    In the last five years, Oregon lost 15,000 jobs in forest products.
  But it gained nearly 20,000 jobs in high technology, with companies
  like Hewlett-Packard, which makes computer parts, expanding considerably
  in the state. By early next year, for the first time in history, high
  technology will surpass timber as the leading source of jobs in the
  Beaver State. And timber workers are being retrained for some of those
  jobs, particularly in manufacturing.

.....the article goes on like this. In regard to retraining......

    As for the loggers and millworkers who have already lost their jobs,
  most of them did not become minimum-wage hamburger flippers, as 
  predicted. At Lane Community College in Springfield, the nations
  largest center for retraining displaced woodworkers, nearly 9 out of 10
  people going through the program have found new jobs, at an average
  wage of $9.02 an hour, abouot $1 an hour less than the average timber
  industry wage. They are becoming auto mechanics, accountants, cabinet-
  makers and health care workers.

    "So many people say this is the best thing to ever happen to them,"
  said Jeff Wilson, a former millworkers from the town of Mapleton
  who is finishing his retraining program and plans to become a community
  service worker. "I was brain-dead at the mill, never thought I'd do
  anything else. Now, its like the world has opened up."

.....and so it goes. The townfolks' tunes have changes. Consider.....

    "Owls versus jobs was just plain false," Mr. Morrisette [mayor of
  Springfield] said. "What we've got here is quality of life. And as
  long as we don't screw it up, we'll always be able to attract people
  and business."

.....and you should read what Mr. Burrill said, when asked about his
statement that saving owls would creat Appalachia in the Northwest.....

    "We've had an awful lot of new industry, and that surprised me," he
  said. He said people moving to southern Oregon from California are not
  all retirees, as the stereotpe has it. "They are bringing jobs with
  them", he said. "Turns out there's a hell of a lot going on."
  
                                ********

The article fails to point out, however, what the people have to
thank for their improving lives and economies - the preservation of
the ancient forests and their inhabitants, including the spotted owls.

Here is a scary thought.
The timber companies have reached the edge of the continent in their cut and
run strageties.
Now they will start on the East coast second growth forests.  How long 
will it take them to reach Mi again?

Haven't they already? All the state and national forests in Michigan are
managed primarily for wood products (with some simultaneous management
for meat products). There is only now some talk of possible *future*
management of some areas to produce "old growth" in a century or so.

true.  

        The plight of ancient forests is very dire indeed. I would point
out however, that Earth First! has done far more to organize & fight
for the protection of old growth forests than the Wilderness society
ever dreamed of, with far fewer funds.  For more info about Earth First!
contact the Earth First Journal
             POB 1415
             Eugene, OR.
             97440
        Or e-mail me here if you have any questions.

(Let's not pit them against one another - there are a dozen organizations
all doing *something* about ancient forests.)

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