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Take Action to Protect Roadless Areas on the Medicine Bow
Your comments are needed by March 31

Question: Hazardous fuel removal, sanitation and salvage, aspen enhancement; what does it all mean?

Answer: Logging inside roadless areas on the Medicine Bow.

The Libby Flats Roadless Area and the Middle Fork Roadless Area are two of the most magical places that can be found in southeastern Wyoming. The Libby Flats Area begins near the top of the Snowy Range with fragile alpine tundra and ribbon forests full of trees dwarfed and contorted by the harsh climate. The roadless area then dips eastward, dropping significantly in elevation and providing a rich and diverse forest habitat. It also holds the running waters of Libby Creek, with all its fast moving rapids and deep pools. The nearby Middle Fork Roadless Area is scattered with historic mines. It is characterized by an ancient old-growth forest, a spectacular water fall, and a steep canyon carved by the Middle Fork of the Little Laramie River.

Unfortunately, the Forest Service wants to "sanitize" wild forests within these roadless areas with a logging operation called the Rainbow Valley Project—in a misguided attempt to reduce the risk of fire. Please speak out against this project by March 31 in an email or letter and tell the Forest Service to keep chain saws and heavy machinery out of the last wild forests of the Medicine Bow. Addresses can be found below. Here are some possible ideas to include within your letter:

  • Medicine Bow forests need fire. The forests of the Medicine Bow evolved over thousands and thousands of years with natural processes like fire, mistletoe, and pine beetle. They are an indispensable part of the ecosystem, without which these forest can't be natural and healthy.

  • Keep the last wild forests wild! Only about 30% of the Medicine Bow is characterized as roadless. If you log these areas to prevent fire, 100% of the Medicine Bow will be characterized more and more as a tree farm. The Forest Service should provide a balanced approach to forest management and allow nature itself to dictate the "management" of these last remaining wildlands, as it has done for the preceding millennia.

  • Even if it was a good idea to prevent forest fires, it simply can’t be done. After all our experience with fire throughout the west over the past half century, it should be obvious: fire cannot be prevented by forest managers. Fire is inevitable. The Rainbow Valley project, like so many other logging projects that have taken place throughout our National Forests, will do nothing to prevent the long-term likelihood of fire.

  • Large forest fires can’t be prevented, but much can be done to fireproof homes and other structures near forest land. Research has shown that the most effective way to safeguard homes near the forest occurs in the area immediately surrounding the home. The Forest Service should stop pushing logging projects intended to prevent fire, which are doomed to failure, and should instead focus on educational efforts to show home owners what can be done to fireproof their own property.

    Thank you for taking action to save wild forests. Letters or emails should be sent by March 31 to:

    Terry DeLay
    Medicine Bow National Forest
    PO Box 249
    Saratoga, WY 82331
    tdelay@fs.fed.us




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