For Immediate Release
May 14, 2002

Laramie, WY – In a continuing struggle to save the last remaining unprotected wildlands on the Medicine Bow National Forest, Laramie-based conservation group Biodiversity Associates has formally requested the U.S. Forest Service to reconsider allowing a State of Wyoming timber sale to proceed within the Coon Creek Roadless Area.

Biodiversity Associates made the formal request in response to a recently proposed land exchange between the State of Wyoming and the U.S. Forest Service. The proposed exchange would include a section of State-owned land which has been slated to be logged this summer and which has been the subject of great controversy for several years. The section of land, oftentimes referred to as "Section 16" lies entirely within the Coon Creek Roadless Area near Encampment, WY. This large area of forested wildlands harbor some of the largest remaining intact forests along the Colorado-Wyoming border on the Sierra Madre. Rare and imperiled wildlife species like the northern goshawk, pine marten, and boreal toad inhabit the roadless area. The wildlands are also very popular among recreationists. Biodiversity Associates and numerous others have long advocated an exchange of Section 16 for another section of Medicine Bow National Forest land in order to protect the roadless area from a proposed timber sale.

Prior to allowing the State of Wyoming access to log Section 16, the U.S. Forest Service completed an environmental impact statement to analyze alternatives to allowing the State access to log within Section 16. A land exchange alternative was eliminated from analysis in the environmental impact statement by the U.S. forest Service as "infeasible".

"Now all of a sudden, a land exchange alternative is not only feasible, but entirely realistic," said Jeremy Nichols of Biodiversity Associates in response to the recent U.S. Forest Service proposal. "It is our hopes that Section 16 won't be logged before this proposed land exchange happens."

Under the National Environmental Policy Act regulations, the U.S. Forest Service is required to supplement an environmental impact statement if significant new information relating to the impacts of a proposed action come to light. The Forest Service is required to complete supplements before undertaking the proposed action. "In this case, the newly proposed land exchange is significant new information that will undeniably have bearing on the impacts of logging in Section 16. We're simply asking the Forest Service to adhere to its legal requirements," said Nichols. He stated further, "As we've been trying to say all along, a land exchange alternative is ecologically necessary in this heavily impacted region of the Bow. It would protect remaining wildlands and wildlife in the Coon Creek Roadless Area from logging and would also protect the largest remaining tract of interior forest habitat along the Colorado-Wyoming border in the Sierra Madre."

Because the U.S. Forest Service has yet to respond to Biodiversity Associates' request, it is uncertain what the fate of Section 16 will be. State and U.S. Forest Service officials have indicated logging will begin in Section 16 as soon as snow has sufficiently melted. This time is fast approaching. "We hope the Forest Service realizes what's at stake here. A land exchange is the only way to preserve the natural values of the Coon Creek Roadless Area for generations to come. That is, if it's not logged before then."