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Logging and Road Building Threatens Wildlife, Public Interest For Immediate Release: For More Information Contact: Laramie, WY-Citing illegal wildlife inventories and shoddy environmental analysis, conservation group Biodiversity Conservation Alliance is taking the U.S. Forest Service to court over the Cement timber sale, a large industrial logging and road building project slated for the Black Hills National Forest. Authorized earlier this year, the Cement timber sale will affect 17,000 acres of public forest lands in northeastern Wyoming. The project calls for cutting 10,300,000 board feet of trees, an exceptionally large amount of logging. Estimates indicate 15,000 board feet is needed to build a typical house. 80 miles of roads are proposed for building and rebuilding. The project threatens an area noted for its diverse wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, biological richness, and proximity to the Sand Creek Roadless Area, the largest and one of the last remaining unprotected wilderness landscapes in the Black Hills. The project area also supports old growth forest that is vital for imperiled wildlife like the northern goshawk, a declining forest raptor. According to the Forest Service, rare and imperiled species of wildlife that need old growth forest will be harmed. "With the fate of wildlife and their old growth habitat on the line, the last thing the Forest Service should be considering is more logging here," said Jeremy Nichols with Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. "These are our public lands they're managing, not an industrial tree farm." The Black Hills is one of the most heavily logged National Forests in the country, unlike the vast majority of National Forests. Virtually the entire Black Hills National Forest has been cut over at least once, with most of the forest cut three to four times in the past century, leaving little old growth forest and wilderness. The Forest Service estimates that less than 2% of the entire forest is old growth. Scientists have found much of the Black Hills supported more abundant old growth, as evidenced by historical records and wildlife that depend on this habitat. Researchers have expressed concern over the impacts of logging to old growth forest in the Black Hills. In a recent peer-reviewed study, which was published in the journal Forest Science, scientists stated, "Despite increasing demands for timber harvest, large tracts of unlogged, mature forest should be retained throughout the Black Hills." The scientists continued, "As the landscape becomes more fragmented, the value of large contiguous tracts of dense forest will become increasingly important to maintain populations of interior [forest]-dwelling birds." Populations of wildlife that need old growth have been facing an increasingly uncertain future on the Black Hills. According to the Forest Service, northern goshawk have been declining and populations of other species are at dangerously low levels. For example, the agency estimates that only around 150 brown creepers, a forest songbird that depends on dense, older forest, and only around 50 three-toed woodpecker, a sensitive woodpecker species that is found primarily in old growth, remain on the entire forest. Scientific studies suggest populations of at least 500 are needed to ensure long-term survival. "This situation speaks directly to the need to manage for more old growth in the Black Hills," said Nichols. "It's a shame the Forest Service is not taking responsibility for protecting this scarce, yet invaluable resource." Old growth forest on the Black Hills is also considered more fire resistant than younger forest, due in part to the thick bark of larger trees and well-shaded forest floors. According to the Forest Service, recent large fires in the Black Hills have burned through areas that have been intensively logged and thinned in the recent past. Conservationists are filing the lawsuit over two issues. First, before authorizing the logging, the Forest Service failed to gather required wildlife inventories for rare and imperiled species. The failure to adequately assess population status casts doubt over the Forest Service's findings that logging and road building would not jeopardize these species. Second, the Forest Service prepared an inadequate environmental analysis for the logging and road building. By law, the Forest Service must rigorously analyze the impacts of its actions to the environment and is required to consider a range of alternative actions. Analyzing impacts and a range of alternatives ensures that federal decisionmakers fully understand the impacts of their actions and consider less damaging alternatives, so that their decisions ultimately protect the long-term health and sustainability of our environment. "The Cement timber sale turns decades of good public policy that has protected our environment and our communities on its head," said attorney Brad Bartlett, who is representing Biodiversity "The public deserves better." More information on the Black Hills and the Cement timber sale.
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