ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 5, 1996 TAG: 9612050069
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
THE NATIONAL forests and parks of the Southern Appalachians comprise the largest piece of public land in the Eastern United States, and more and more, the public wants a say in what is done with it.
The National Forest Service, to its credit, has been open both to the shift in public interest and to increasingly sophisticated ways of managing the national forests that make up most of this territory.
Evidence of this change can be found in the groundwork laid by the agency as it prepares to write a new management plan for the Jefferson National Forest, 700,000 acres spread across many parts of Southwest Virginia.
The current plan, written in 1985, identifies some wilderness areas and a few other special management areas, but most of the forest is classified either as suitable for timber harvesting or unsuitable for timber harvesting.
Public comment, which closes formally on Monday, and pooling of scientific information such as that provided by the recently released Southern Appalachian Assessment, promise to produce a plan that is both more specific and broader. It should pinpoint areas for particular uses. It should also take into account the impact that different uses will have on entire ecosystems, including the effects of and on surrounding private lands.
While small stands of old-growth woods are scattered throughout the forest, for example, the Forest Service may want to set aside larger areas for old growth, to protect habitat for wildlife that need not just old-growth forestland to survive, but old growth that is insulated from more open land.
The timber and other commodities in national forests aren't meant to be locked up, as they are in national parks, but their extraction should be done in ways that protect the forests for future generations. That protection extends not just to timber stands but to all the animal and plant life that forms the intricate ecological webs of forests at various stages of growth.
Concerns about preserving biodiversity, as well as issues affecting private interests - from logging to recreational uses - are being gathered by the Forest Service to help it identify what significant questions the new management plan should address. And the service intends to continue to seek public involvement in sorting out conflicts and building a consensus plan.
This will be long and messy, but it is, after all, the public's land.
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB