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

DATE: SATURDAY, October 16, 1993                   TAG: 9310160109
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

SIERRA CLUB, FOREST SERVICE, GYPSY MOTHS FIGHT FOR OAKS

Environmental groups determined to save a cluster of old oak trees are preparing a court fight over a national-forest logging plan, a common tactic on the Pacific Northwest but unusual in the East, a lawyer said Friday.

"This is a rare ecosystem we're looking at, and the sale would have a very damaging effect," said Edward Zukoski, a Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund lawyer.

It is prime living space for black bear and songbirds and a scenic place for people.

"If you want solitude, this is the place to come," said Lynn Cameron of Harrisonburg, a Sierra Club member who guided Zukoski and other environmentalists on a tour this week.

"This is not `old growth,' but it's coming," Wilderness Society ecologist Dan Boone said. "In another 50 years, it will be phenomenal."

Environmental groups trying to stop the logging have lost a series of appeals to the Forest Service.

Zukoski said he'll seek an injunction in U.S. District Court, either in Harrisonburg or Washington, to stop the logging, if the George Washington National Forest follows through with its plan.

The Forest Service wants to allow logging on 165 acres of roadless area to remove trees destined to be killed by gypsy moths. Logging roads are prohibited in this area 10 miles west of Harrisonburg, so the timber would be lifted out by helicopter.

"What you've got now is some people who don't want a single tree cut," said W. Terry Smith, spokesman for the George Washington National Forest. "What we're trying to do is capture the value of those trees, before the gypsy moth does its thing and kills them."

The timber sale would be put out to bid in the spring and net the government an estimated $42,444. The Forest Service said the plan is responsible and consistent with the government's mission to have the forest provide multiple uses.

It will proceed if Forest Service biologists find heavy gypsy-moth egg infestations when they walk the area next month, Smith said.

The agency said the logging primarily would remove high-quality old oaks, which gypsy moths eventually would kill. It said the woods would regenerate with a wider variety of trees more resistant to the moth.

They tract known as Briery Branch is designated unsuitable for timbering, except for salvage sales to remove damaged wood. Environmentalists contend the Forest Service is using the gypsy moth as an excuse for the government to make money.

Logging would remove live oaks that resisted the gypsy moth, thus eliminating the best trees from the forest gene pool, environmentalists say. Oaks, they argue, are a species on which the forest's character depends, and their acorns are a prime food source for black bear.

by CNB