Highlights from Recent Editorials Across the Country

"Merely having a president assert&that the forests have a higher purpose than the supply of timber is a welcome departure."
The Washington Post, October 15, 1999

"These forests are a hugely depleted resource that ought to be conserved."
The Washington Post, October 15, 1999

"Timbering hasnt been stopped in the forests. But an industry that used to hold harmful sway there has been put on the defensive, and that is progress."
The Washington Post, October 15, 1999

"&the Tongass is not explicitly excluded, and in the end its two million roadless acres could be added. That would make a very good plan even better."
The New York Times, October 18, 1999

"One of the reasons for the current moratorium was that the road-building was causing erosion, leading to mudslide problems; two years ago, a group of 169 scientists wrote Clinton that the road-building was endangering water resources in the forests. So, it is interesting that Western Republicans, in denouncing the Clinton initiative, claim that this plan would endanger forest health by increasing vulnerability to wildfires and insect infestation."
The Salt Lake Tribune, October 20, 1999

"On its face, though, the Republican objection seems curious, since it suggests that these millions of acres of forest land will now be endangered because they wont have roads that they never had."
The Salt Lake Tribune, October 20, 1999

"In many remote regions to be studied, there would be little, if any, impact on logging because there has not been any to date or contemplated."
The Seattle Times, October 20, 1999

"Most timber sales lose money for the U.S. Treasury after timber companies are compensated for building roads that allow erosion, mudslides and degradation of wildlife habitat."
The Seattle Times, October 20, 1999

"Adding the Tongass would be a crowning touch to a plan with a grand generational sweep."
The Seattle Times, October 20, 1999

"Clinton is wise to force our rapacious generation to keep the forests that way for ensuing generations."
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 18, 1999

"Now, as the 20th Century draws to a close, they [National Forests] are considered an invaluable national resource worthy of protection, an oasis of wilderness in a land consumed by burgeoning population and development. Clintons order recognizes this enlightened view, and will create a legacy for future generations of Americans."
The Sunday Republican (Springfield, MA), October 17, 1999

"&it is a rational and visionary policy for protecting a public asset that is far more valuable as wilderness than are 2x4s."
The Sunday Republican (Springfield, MA), October 17, 1999

"Whats elitist is the lumber industrys attitude that it is entitled to take public property for a fraction of its value, while receiving corporate welfare and harming the environment in the process."
The Sunday Republican (Springfield, MA), October 17, 1999

"Irresponsible road-building, logging and mining in national forests has created environmental havoc, including erosion and mudslides that contaminate water supplies and damage fish and wildlife habitat. Already, the 380,000 miles of logging roads that wind through national forests is eight times the length of the interstate highway system. Thats not the legacy that should be left for future Americans. Clintons plan certainly is."
The Sunday Republican (Springfield, MA), October 17, 1999

"A few powerful legislators, like Alaska's Sen. Ted Stevens, who chairs the Appropriations Committee and is friendly to mining and timber interests, should not be able to foil the will of the majority of the American people."
Asheville Citizen Times (NC), October 20, 1999

"This modest but essential effort to curtail further intrusion into the nation's forests will not spell doom and gloom for the timber industry."
The San Francisco Chronicle, October 15, 1999

"A big issue is the fate of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, cherished as a rare temperate-zone rainforest, but coveted for increased logging, and excluded from the road-building moratorium. It should be included in the new protections, along with old-growth forests in Northern California."
The San Francisco Examiner, October 15, 1999

"Roads are both an easy indicator of an altered ecosystem and a wound to the forest that can enhance erosion and fragment wildlife habitat."
San Jose Mercury News (CA), October 15, 1999

"He [President Clinton] has chosen the right cornerstone -- preservation first."
San Jose Mercury News (CA), October 15, 1999

"As long as preservation remains the top priority, the Forest Service should implement the best science-based practices. Putting preservation first, the Forest Service is rapidly evolving from an agency that viewed public forests chiefly as the national lumber yard to one equally dedicated to outdoor recreation and wildlife. Bully for that, too. "
San Jose Mercury News (CA), October 15, 1999

"What is important is that this plan would permanently set aside 40 million acres of forest land, protecting it from development and possible destruction, an action that could only please Theodore Roosevelt."
The Las Vegas Sun, October 14, 1999

"President Clinton's extension of wilderness protection to 40 million roadless acres of federal woodland is a bold move and a necessary one."
The Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 17, 1999

"The nation is likely to run out of wilderness long before it runs out of pulp and lumber."
The Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 17, 1999

"Lumber and paper companies often prefer to cut in national forests, partly because good stewardship has made those trees more desirable, partly because taxpayer subsidies make them more profitable. With so many alternatives available, their lust for the nation's last tracts of undisturbed forest seems both selfish and shortsighted."
The Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 17, 1999

"Our own view is that protecting this land from logging, road-building and mining would be a considerable achievement one that would benefit many generations of Americans&Those on Capital Hill who argue for more logging will be making a very unpopular case."
The Courier-Journal, (Louisville, KY), October, 17, 1999

"Few issues garner the support from 70 percent of Americans. But one them is banning oil drilling, logging and mining in the 60 million acres of our national forests not already protected within the wilderness preservation system&We hope Mr. Clinton keeps his word about protecting the environment."
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 18, 1999

"&the presidents plan to stop or slow development on public land in places like the White Mountains of Maine deserves enthusiastic support."
The Bangor Daily News (Maine), October 19,1999

"If they [Members of Congress] could calm down for a moment to examine the plan, however, they would find much to recommend it and they would likely find their constituents already in favor of it."
The Bangor Daily News (Maine), October 19,1999


"Neither the world nor the logging industry will collapse: Clintons decision is justified to protect an irreplaceable natural resource for future generations."
The Chicago Tribune, October 18,1999

"The Tongass belongs to all Americans, including the cruise patrons and hikers and kayakers and wildlife watchers and the generations of outdoors lovers to come, not just to the few who would feed its trees to the buzz saws for a one-time profit. Clinton has done his country a huge favor. His country needs just one more: Include the Tongass in the wilderness package."
The Des Moines Register, October 16,1999

"Its a wonderful plan and one he [Clinton] should pursue despite inevitable cries against it&this plan is a bold step in the right direction. By protecting some, at least, of our ancient, untouched wilderness, Clinton can leave the nation a legacy he can be proud of and all of us will cherish."
The St. Petersburg Times (FL), October 15, 1999

"&President Bill Clinton's plan to ban road-building (and therefore logging) on 40 million acres of national forest is an idea whose time is right."
The Detroit Free Press, October 16, 1999

"This is not a young and poor country anymore. It's a rich nation that can afford amenities such as forests where no permanent human traces are found, where grizzlies have elbow room to roam, and where clear streams will never be silted up by logging on the slopes above."
The Detroit Free Press, October 16, 1999

"What's wrong with wanting to have places that have never been sliced, diced, slashed, cleared, cut, grazed, mined, rutted, riprapped, eroded, strung with wires, dotted with cell phone towers or hung over with the haze of pollution?"
The Detroit Free Press, October 16, 1999

"Sometimes you need chain saws and factories and sometimes you need cathedrals and monuments. We're getting a little short of the latter in this country, and it won't hurt to protect the best that are left."
The Detroit Free Press, October 16, 1999

"Most of the large, relatively undisturbed blocks of remaining old-growth forests ought to be preserved. "
The Portland Oregonian, October 17,1999

"To allow timber companies unfettered access to the remainder of virgin forests and wilderness areas would deprive future generations of an irreplaceable birthright&they cannot be replaced by tree farms, nor can their complex ecology be replicated by man. If anything the Presidents plan may seek to protect too little."
The Chattanooga Times (TN), October 18, 1999

"There is no excuse for failure to seek more preservation."
The Chattanooga Times (TN), October 18, 1999

"Tongass deserves the protection."
The Tennessean, October 17, 1999

"Disrupting a forest with roadways not only leads to logging and mining, it leads to erosion, pollution, other commercial development and affects the habitat. The nation must continue to protect these magnificent areas. The president took an important step toward that goal. Not all roads lead to glory in nation's public lands."
The Tennessean, October 17, 1999

"Clintons decision is justified to protect an irreplaceable natural resource for future generations."
The South Bend Tribune (IN), October 22, 1999

"Clintons decision protects an irreplaceable natural resource for future generations."
The Santa Fe New Mexican, October 19, 1999