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Highlights from Recent Editorials Across the Country
"...dealing with the Tongass is tricky, but its wild areas are no less deserving of protection. As it moves to a final plan, the Forest Service ought to do better on this one."
The Washington Post, May 13, 2000
"The greatest flaw in the plan is exclusion of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska."
The Baltimore Sun, June 1, 2000
"President Clinton proposes to ban road building on these lands [National Forests], largely protecting them from extensive logging and intensive use. That is a worthy goal for the greatest public good."
The Baltimore Sun, June 1, 2000
"On its face, the Forest Service draft plan seems to provide protection, but the realities of modern logging techniques rob it of much of its force."
The Boston Globe, May 21, 2000
"The Forest Service proposal is also flawed for failing to include the Tongass Forest in southern Alaska, the last major northern rain forest In the world and home to magnificent stands of trees so far untouched by loggers but in danger of destructive harvesting."
The Boston Globe, May 21, 2000
"Montana's future isn't in harvesting timber from or punching roads into the 12 percent that isn't roaded already. In the other 88 percent of the state are thousands and thousands of existing roads to travel, miles to explore, trails to follow. Surely that's enough."
The Missoulian, February 13, 2000
"Not included in the preferred alternative is a ban of off-road vehicles in these areas, which is a mistake. In fact, none of the four possible alternatives even the most restrictive bans ORVs. Restrictions are probably warranted in areas important enough to be dubbed roadless."
The Missoulian, May 21, 2000
"The areas will not be locked up and people won't be locked out, but [simply] new roads won't be allowed."
The Missoulian, June 21, 2000
"What little roadless area left -- only about 12% of the state, a much smaller slice than most people think -- must carry a huge responsibility for unspoiled hunting, clean water, wildlife and fish habitat, camping, hiking, spiritual renewal and other activities that require and demand distance from cars and snowmobiles and development."
The Miles City Star (MT), February 28, 2000
"President Clinton's proposal to preserve roadless lands in the West has received undue criticism. If we really care for this state and all the blessings it offers residents and nonresidents alike, we must take some steps to preserve habitat for native cutthroat and family outings. There is value in roadless areas in Montana, for the pocketbook and the soul. Politicians should remember that."
The Billings Gazette (MT), July 2, 2000
"...to set aside these roadless areas is the right thing to do"
The Providence Journal, April 14, 2000
"...all Americans urban, suburban and rural have a big stake in ensuring that substantial parts of America's forests remain wilderness."
The Providence Journal, April 14, 2000
"National Forest land has to remain accessible to the public, but at the same time the remoteness and solitude they represent can't be given up in the name of access."
The Traverse City Record-Eagle (MI), March 10, 2000
"One of the aims of setting aside tens of thousands of acres of national forest land in Michigan and across the country is to let future generations enjoy nature in its most natural state. And natural doesn't mean crisscrossed by logging roads, two-tracks, paths, ATV trails and other permanent signs that humans have passed this way."
The Traverse City Record-Eagle (MI), March 10, 2000
"One would think that timber companies build and maintain the roads that allow them to extract logs from public land. Wrong. Taxpayers have footed the bill at a cost of $458 million since 1991."
The Tomah Journal (WI), February 17, 2000
"Now is the time to apply welfare reform to the timber industry."
The Tomah Journal (WI), February 17, 2000
"It makes sense to save the wilder parts of the National Forests from road construction."
The San Francisco Examiner, May 12, 2000
"Users of off-road vehicles already have thousands of miles available to them."
The San Francisco Examiner, May 12, 2000
"This exclusion of the Tongass from the overall scheme smacks of political sellout to the Alaskan congressional delegation. If Clinton wants full credit for the roadless forests/salvation as part of his legacy, he should override this concession to Alaskan clear-cutters. Those 20-story-high spruce and hemlock tress belong to all Americans."
The San Francisco Examiner, May 12, 2000
"An even more disturbing loophole in the Clinton plan, however, was the exemption of the nation's largest national forest, Alaska's Tongass. Tongass should be part of this national policy."
The San Francisco Chronicle, May 28, 2000
"The loggers also don't like to discuss the unmerited federal subsidy they get in the form of government-built roads that allow them to stay in business. As for fire protection and removal of diseased tress, Mother Nature has been providing that service for thousands of millennia."
The Chicago Tribune, May 15, 2000
"Clinton is correct in calling for a ban on new road construction in roadless areas of this country's national forests. But the President did not go far enough - he exempted the 8.7 million-acre Tongass National Forest in Alaska from his request."
The Houston Chronicle, May 10, 2000
"President Clinton is doing the right thing in trying to save pristine areas of the nation for generations yet unborn. We only wish he had included the Tongass, the largest forest of all."
The Houston Chronicle, May 10, 2000
"A sweeping proposal intended to preserve nearly one-quarter of America's national forests for future generations was greeted Tuesday with dismay by environmental groups and distrust by the timber industry."
The Oregonian, May 10, 2000
"This is a powerful, emotional issue for the Northwest, and public opinion is strongly behind new protections for roadless areas Oregonians should support it."
The Oregonian, May 10, 2000
"All of the criticism immediately heaped on the plan Tuesday from both sides in the forest debate obscures the fact that the Forest Service has taken a bold step to resolve roadless-area issues that have dogged the agency for more than two decades. Prompted by the Clinton administration, the Forest Service at last has stated clearly that it will build no more new roads, and won't reconstruct any old ones, in vast areas of the national forests. That's a critical, long-overdue policy change, and it ought to be celebrated by everyone who cares about protecting clean water, natural scenic beauty, outdoor recreation and other forest values.
The Oregonian, May 10, 2000
"The Clinton administration's proposal to safeguard the nation's remaining wild forests is disappointing in its limitations. When President Clinton announced plans for the proposal last fall he spoke eloquently of protecting America's wilderness heritage. The draft plan put forth [this week] by the Forest Service is unlikely to accomplish that goal."
The Winston-Salem Journal (OR), May 15, 2000
"The other glaring gap in the draft plan is its specific exemption of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. The exemption illustrates one of the dangers of local control of national forests: Alaska's congressional delegation regards the Tongass primarily as an economic resource and fights conservation. It would be shortsighted and selfish to allow the destruction of the nation's surviving wilderness areas for the sake of short-term economic benefits."
The Winston-Salem Journal (OR), May 15, 2000
"But if, as Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman told reporters Tuesday, the new plan was never supposed to do anything but restrict road building, then a lot of people were sorely misled.
The Winston-Salem Journal (OR), May 15, 2000
"Fundamentally, the Forest Service has a decent plan with one glaring exception -- a decision not to decide on the future of the 8.5 million roadless acres in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. This unique gem deserves special protection."
The Seattle Times (WA), May 10, 2000
"An unrepaired wilderness road can fester like an untreated wound, spreading ecological poison in the form of slides and erosion that choke fragile salmon-bearing watersheds with sediment. That's why President Clinton's recent proposed plan to ban new road construction in 43 million acres of inventoried national forestland -- makes sound and timely sense -- it's a legacy that future generations of Americans are likely to appreciate."
The Tacoma News Tribune (WA), May 26, 2000
"There's a lot less than meets the eye in President Clinton's roadless proposal for national forests. Less protection for 'wildlands' than advertised by the president."
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA), May 14, 2000
"Our concern with the president's plan is not in the ban on building roads, but the fact that it provides no protection for the so-called "uninventoried" roadless areas -- those parcels of 5,000 acres or less. These parcels must not slip through the cracks."
The Olympian (WA), May 17, 2000
"Forest Service officials must consider going further with a plan to protect roadless areas."
The Everett Herald (WA), June 2, 2000
"Even if simply adopted as currently written, the plan would represent a wholesome environmental legacy from the Clinton administration."
The Everett Herald (WA), June 2, 2000
"...there seems to have been too much attention paid to politics in a decision to leave Alaska's Tongass National Forest out of the proposal. It's the nation's largest forest, and certainly deserves consideration in any effort to protect the environment."
The Everett Herald (WA), June 2, 2000
"Exempting the Tongass National Forest makes no sense."
The Portland Press Herald (ME), May 15, 2000
"By failing to protect the Tongass until 2004 at the earliest, the Forest Service is simply trying to appease powerful Alaskan interests for the sake of expediency. That's a poor decision, and one that ought to be reversed."
The Portland Press Herald (ME), May 15, 2000
"There is already a vast road system snaking through our forests and new construction should be limited. The nation's forests are being abused and need our attention. We should be doing more, not less, to protect the forest."
Lewiston Sun Journal (ME), May 27, 2000
"The Forest Service's plans for no new roads is a long overdue step forward in protecting our remaining forests."
The Las Vegas Sun, May 12, 2000
"There are already 4,650 miles of existing roads on the Tongass and they cost taxpayers $33 million a year in subsidies. More than 10 billion board feet of timber is within reach of the roads already on this jewel of North America. More expensive and damaging roads aren't needed."
--The Las Vegas Sun, May 12, 2000
"At this time the Forest Service needs $8.4 billion to fix existing roads. What it doesn't need is the cost of building more roads and keeping them in safe condition when it can't afford present demands."
The Las Vegas Sun, May 12, 2000
"When President Clinton proposed recently to preserve a substantial portion of the nation's remaining pristine national forests as roadless areas, he implied he would protect the newly classified lands from logging, mining and other exploitative uses. The proposal announced this week by the Forest Service to implement the president's policy does not fulfill that vision."
The Chattanooga Times & Free Press, May 13, 2000
"The pillage of the Tongass should be stopped, but the administration lacks the will to tackle that challenge."
The Chattanooga Times & Free Press, May 13, 2000
"The Forest Service has long stretched the rules to allow logging."
The Chattanooga Times & Free Press, May 13, 2000
"...the proposal has its disappointments, too. In several significant departures -- and one huge omission -- it falls short of the vision President Clinton voiced last October.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, May 18, 2000
"...the proposal [does not] specifically ban timber-cutting and mining from roadless areas. This opens a loophole large enough for off-road logging equipment and helicopters, and leaves front-line foresters to decide who can drive through it. "
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, May 18, 2000
"But the proposal's biggest fault by far is its exclusion from the general road-building ban of the 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska -- the biggest unit in the system and part of the largest temperate rain forest in the country. If any national forest deserves special protection for its wildest parts, it's the Tongass."
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, May 18, 2000
"...the agency falls short of anything bold or historic when it comes to managing the public's last remaining unspoiled lands."
Scripps Howard News Service Editorial (The Concord Monitor, N.H.), May 19, 2000
"Banning new roads without explicitly prohibiting timber harvests in roadless areas is like curing the symptom but not the disease."
Scripps Howard News Service Editorial (The Concord Monitor, N.H.), May 19, 2000
"Half of our national forests are open to logging and yet the timber industry wants more. It?s time to tilt forest management toward public, not private, gain."
Scripps Howard News Service Editorial (The Concord Monitor, N.H.), May 19, 2000
"Despite its limitations -- or maybe in part because of them -- it seems to us that the Clinton plan strikes the right balance."
The Keene Sentinel (NH), June 10, 2000
"...the plan would not forbid logging, mining, grazing, off-road vehicle activities and the like. It appears most such land-management decisions would be by local officials. It's painful to imagine the special-interest pressures and the tension this would invite at the local level."
The Raleigh News & Observer (N.C.), May 22, 2000
"The Clinton's administration's plan for our national forests' roadless areas is itself a dead-end. The draft plan the Clinton team recently released first seems to ban new road building in all roadless areas. But the proposal creates so many exceptions, even fudging the definition of what a roadless area is, it may accomplish nothing.
The Denver Post (CO), May 23, 2000
"The Forest Service proposal would slow the road-building, but it does not go far enough. It's time to put an end to this waste of tax dollars and natural resources. "
The Tampa Tribune (FL), May 22, 2000
"The plan also contains a glaring omission. It would not prohibit road-building in the undisturbed sections of the Tongass National Forest."
The Tampa Tribune (FL), May 22, 2000
"This plan clearly is not nearly as strong as it should be. And it has another major flaw. The draft provides no protection for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the nation's largest roadless area and a wilderness of stunning beauty. To allow the Tongass to be destroyed would be a disgrace."
The Tampa Tribune (FL), July 6, 2000
"President Bill Clinton, to his credit, has said he wants to safeguard national forests, which belong to all Americans, not solely to the logging industry. He should demand a plan that will genuinely protect roadless areas, not slyly give loggers license to raze the country's wilderness."
The Tampa Tribune (FL), July 6, 2000
"...forests are so scarred by illegal roads that federal forestry officials can't even determine what sort of environmental damage the roads may have caused."
The Orlando Sentinel (FL), February 3, 2000
"There's another problem with the Clinton plan: It does not include the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. The President should take another look at his plan and toughen it up."
The St. Petersburg Times (FL), July 10, 2000
"The wilderness is not a theme park, set up for our convenience. It has an inherent value far beyond the monetary. It is our patrimony, one of the glories of America, but it should be protected and left alone."
The St. Petersburg Times (FL), July 10, 2000
"Thanks to President Clinton's "Roadless Area Initiative," there is hope that thousands of acres here in Florida and elsewhere in America, will continue to be protected against the harmful impacts that accompany road-building and logging."
The Gainesville Sun (FL), June 29, 2000
"...the Clinton initiative is a good step in the right direction, it doesn't go nearly far enough. To be effective, the initiative needs to be expanded to include more areas than are currently contemplated. For instance, there is no excuse for excluding Alaska's Tongass National Forest - one of the largest remaining stretches of undisturbed old-growth forests in America - from the initiative. In addition, the initiative should be expanded to include protection of smaller areas of roadless forests. And, finally, areas that are designated as protected under the roadless initiative should also be placed off-limits to logging altogether."
The Gainesville Sun (FL), June 29, 2000
"The economic importance of logging in America's national forests has always been overrated."
The Gainesville Sun (FL), June 29, 2000
"The road-building ban would further the U.S. Forest Service's welcome shift from its historical role as a manager of forest-product resources to the role it increasingly has taken on, under the leadership of Chief Michael Dombeck, as a manager of forest ecosystems. The plan deserves vocal public support."
The Roanoke Times & World News (VA), May 15, 2000
"Two gaping holes exist in the U.S. Forest Service's preferred plan for banning new road construction. The first is that the plan does not ban logging in the remaining unspoiled areas of the forests. The second problem is its omission of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska from the road-building protections."
The Kansas City Star, May 14, 2000
"The Forest Service plan does not reflect the desires of the American people."
The Kansas City Star, May 14, 2000
"The public should encourage the president to choose an alternative that includes protection of the Tongass as well a ban on logging in unspoiled areas of public forest."
The Kansas City Star, May 14, 2000
"The Forest Service wants to set aside some unique regions for protection as "special areas." The agency also is seeking public comment on the plan. Both are good ideas."
The Times-Mail (IN), March 7, 2000
"President Clinton's proposal to bar road building in national forests falls far short of safeguarding those precious acres from development, logging and intrusions by off-road vehicles. It also, glaringly, exempts Alaska's immense and valuable Tongass National Forest from any protection whatsoever, an inexplicable and unfortunate omission.
The South Bend Tribune (IN), May 19, 2000
"The proposed regulations fall short of what is needed to keep these vast tracts of forestland pristine for generations to come. Americans should demand tougher protections for this national treasure."
The Hartford Courant (CT), June 12, 2000
"Worst of all, the Forest Service's preferred alternative does not protect the giant Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the nation's largest. Alaska's powerful Republican senators want to exploit this rich resource. They and other Western senators believe the president's protection plan would be a heavy blow to the timber industry. They're wrong. The forests, including Tongass, should be protected from commercial exploitation and invasive recreational use."
The Hartford Courant (CT), June 12, 2000
"The Forest Service should scrub its inadequate "preferred" policy and promulgate tough protections for the roadless lands. This could be the last chance to do it right."
The Hartford Courant (CT), June 12, 2000
"The need for the new policy is manifest in the unassailable fact that the Forest Service has become a road construction and maintenance agency. It subsidizes logging by using taxpayers' money to build and maintain roads for the private companies that reap the profits of logging. The new regulations will, at least, force the companies to spend their own money to gain access to the trees by helicopter."
The Scranton Times-Tribune (PA), June 6, 2000
"Logging's benefactors in Congress lamely complain that the policy is just meant to enhance the president's environmental legacy. For the sake of future Americans who deserve to inherit a legacy of healthy national forests, let's hope so."
The Scranton Times-Tribune (PA), June 6, 2000
"Since it's possible to extract logs without roadways, using systems ranging from cables to helicopters, conservationists want to ban logging in the roadless forests. That's the sounder policy."
The Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), July 11, 2000
"Another weakness in the administration plan is that the largest national forest of them all - Alaska's Tongass - is exempted from the road-building ban."
The Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), July 11, 2000
"Preserving these forests is a vital national interest for which President Clinton should put up more of a fight."
The Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), July 11, 2000
"Allowing these lands to remain roadless can't hurt them and would help maintain a legacy of the great wilderness that once covered the entire continent, of which very little is left in its original state. Keeping these lands in their primitive condition will require some effort -- hiking, backpacking -- by those who desire to see them, but this is by no means a "lockout," as some have described it."
The Harrisburg Patriot (PA), July 12, 2000
"President Clinton has taken one of the most important steps in history to protect the environment. There is plenty of land for industry to use for mining, logging and recreation. The impact on local economies would not be significant."
The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), July 12, 2000
"...GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush has promised timber interests to undo the Clinton forest plan. That would be a mistake. This is not merely a matter of preserving areas where people can still find peace and solitude in a hectic world, although that in itself would be enough to justify the policy."
The Atlanta Constitution-Journal (GA), July 10, 2000
"An estimated 9,500 miles of roads already dissect the southern Appalachian forests, nearly double the miles of interstate highway in the six-state region. That extensive network provides more than adequate access to the treasures of our national forests; any further road construction would endanger the treasures themselves."
The Atlanta Constitution-Journal (GA), July 10, 2000
"Every so often a political issue triggers a powerful public response. So it is with President Clinton's wise proposal to protect some of the country's most unspoiled national forest land from road building, mining and logging."
The Burlington Free Press (VT), June 27, 2000
"Should the nation's roadless forests remain open to future road construction to promote logging? The short-answer: No."
USA Today, June 26, 2000
"...proposed regulations to ban road building in virgin tracts larger than 5,000 acres is the least that should be done. The ban excludes the Tongass National Forest in Alaska - a better solution would be to ban road building and to ban logging there as well."
USA Today, June 26, 2000
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