
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 2, 1993                   TAG: 9305020188
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

FORESTERS RETHINK POLICIES

The world's largest group of professional foresters is urging a dramatic departure from the century-old practices of the U.S. timber industry, saying that more emphasis must be given to protecting wildlife and diversity in forests.

In an uncharacteristically pointed report, the Society of American Foresters said the current aim to cut trees at the same rate of regrowth is simply not enough to protect forests over time.

Instead, a task force recommends an ecosystem approach that would also base logging on protection of wildlife, water quality and overall ecological health.

"If you read between the lines, what it is saying is what the profession was taught, and what it helped teach, has turned out to be wrong and we are going to have to make amends for past mistakes," said Frances Hunt, a forester for the National Wildlife Federation and a society member.

The report is so controversial within the industry that the 18,000-member society's board of directors has yet to adopt a formal policy advocating the ideas.

"We are talking about a major change in forestry in the United States," said Logan Norris, the task force chairman and head of the Department of Forest Science at Oregon State University. "There are some people really nervous about it."

James Sweeney, director of wildlife ecology for the American Forest and Paper Association, was among three industry representatives on the 11-member task force.

"The different authors had quite divergent viewpoints at the front," Sweeney he said.

"Folks tend to say, `Oh gosh, that's getting into some difficult areas,' and as a result, back off of it. To move the concept onto the ground is where the challenge is going to be," he said.

The panel recommends protecting ecological health and diversity across broad landscapes, as large as 1 million acres at a time.

While past government policies have focused only on public land, the new concept would cross ownership boundaries in recognition of the impact that private development has on neighboring government property.

For example, U.S. Forest Service officials are concerned that they never will be able to restore fish habitat in national forests as long as logging operations on private lands send excessive sediment into rivers upstream.

One of three Forest Service officials on the task force expects much debate over involving private landowners in the broad management decisions.

"When you say private property, immediately there is this fear of regulation," said Winifred Kessler, the principal rangeland ecologist at Forest Service headquarters.

Kessler said the task force's idea is to work with landowners rather than dictate what they do.

by CNB