Forest Service decision not to affect southeast ohio

By Nikki Klemmer
General Assignment Editor

Although land in Wayne National Forest will not be protected by a recent decision to preserve national forests, residents of Southeast Ohio could still feel the effects of the measure.

President Bill Clinton approved an order Jan. 5 that placed almost a third of national forest land off-limits to road building and logging. The protective action prohibits logging and road building in inventoried roadless zones and designated wilderness areas.

But Wayne National Forest, which covers more than 225,000 acres and is the only national forest in Ohio, is not protected by the rule.

"It has no effect on this area because we have no wilderness," said Mary Reddan, Wayne's forest supervisor for the Forest Service. Congress designates wilderness areas based on specific criteria.

Reddan said Clinton's order applies mostly to forests in the western United States with 5,000 or more acres.

"Our forest isn't nearly as consolidated as others," she said. "It's less continuous."

Wayne National Forest, composed of three separate districts in the Athens, Ironton and Marietta areas, lies in 12 different Southeastern Ohio counties.

Opponents of the order and directive said Ohio residents will feel the negative consequences of the actions, even though Wayne will not be affected.

"As lumber becomes more difficult to get, the price will go up," said John Benson, executive vice president of the Ohio Lumbermen's Association. "As the price of lumber goes up, fewer and fewer can afford new homes or remodeling. It affects the job market in building trades."

Reddan also said Clinton's order, which locks up 58.5 million more acres of land in 39 states, will affect people's livelihoods.

"It's like here, if you were to say no university classes could be held or built. In some communities logging is the employment and affects the local economy," she said.

The decision came as a blow to the Ohio Lumbermen's Association, which lobbies annually in Washington for more access to timber resources, Benson said.

"There's an ample supply in this country, but we're being denied more and more access to it," he said. "We have to turn to resources outside the country for lumber supply."

Benson said Ohio lumber suppliers already turn to Canada and Asian countries for much of their timber. Trade restrictions limit the amount they can get from Canada.

"Some of the countries we'll have to gain resources from have far less environmental standards than do we," he said.

Even a U.S. Forest Service forester said logging is not taboo.

"Harvesting could be done to benefit forest health, diversity of habitat and employment," forester Philip Perry said.

However, lumbermen have not been able to log in Wayne National Forest for several years because an endangered species of bats lives in the forest, said Zach Haughawout, a legislative aide for Rep. Nancy Hollister, R-Marietta.

"When you have a species that lives in the forest, you can no longer log or destruct their habitat," he said.

Hollister supports limited cutting to help manage the health of the forest, Haughawout said.

But Wayne relies more on recreation than timber harvesting and has provided jobs to local residents, said Jason Tockman, coordinator of the Buckeye Forest Council, a watchdog group that monitors the forest.

The forest brings in $25 million annually in recreation-related income alone, he said. Recreation-related spending supports more than 1,000 jobs.

"It's part of the national trend that you see with the initiation of these rules," Tockman said. "The public doesn't support timber harvesting on national forests."

– Amanda Iacone contributed to this story