Keep The Medicine Bow WILD
Ending Clearcut Logging
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Because clearcut logging is so environmentally destructive, and because it has been so overused on the Medicine Bow, the Citizens' Plan will phase-out clearcut logging in favor of less damaging harvest types.
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- Of all the cutting methods currently available, clearcutting generally causes the most damage to forest wildlife and their habitats, soils, visual quality, and recreation.
- Clearcutting fragments the forest into small patches, leaving the remaining strips of old trees unsuitable for animals requiring larger areas for nesting, security, and forage.
- In June 1992, the Chief of the Forest Service announced that the use of clearcutting would be reduced by 70% on National Forests. However, clearcut logging is still the most common method of removing trees from the Medicine Bow.
- In the Rockies, clearcutting is the cheapest method of removing trees from a forest.
- Clearcutting does not mimic fire as the USFS often claims in an attempt to justify its logging proposals. Clearcutting takes most of the nutrients out of the forest rather than recycling into the soil as fire does. Furthermore, clearcutting is done on 80-140 year rotations, while natural fire might affect a part of the forest only once every 300 years.
- Although the extent of clearcutting is easily seen by airplane, most clearcuts are not evident when driving a car through the Medicine Bow National Forest because the Forest Service has left 100-200 foot-wide "beauty strips" of uncut trees along roadways to hide the scars and because many logging roads on the forest are gated and closed to public travel.
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