National Forest Protection Alliance Releases New Report - America's Endangered National Forests: Lumber, Landfill or Living Lega

This report delivers in-depth profiles of some of the country's most endangered national forests and provides an ecological status report of the current state of the national forest system.

While the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) celebrates its centennial in 2005, fundamental shifts in how our society relates to national forests offer hope for both the agency and the 192 million acre system it manages. However, to borrow a notable philosophical expression, the more things change, the more things stay the same. Despite shifts in the economic marketplace, growing environmental awareness, and changing social attitudes, logging and other resource extraction policies have not been adjusted to reflect the 21st Century.

The foresight of the enduring visionaries who worked to create a reserve of federally protected forests is astounding, particularly given the significant increase in the national forest system’s ecological and economic value since their inception 100 years ago. Much of the increase in economic value can be attributed to an increased level of residential and commercial development in the U.S. Yet now, trade liberalization, which results in an increase in imports to the U.S., and particularly increased production from private forestlands, where 73% of commercial forests are held, are key factors that are reducing pressure to log national forests.

America’s Endangered National Forests: Lumber, Landfill or Living Legacy? gives the reader an informative account of the important socio-economic benefits and uses that intact national forests provide. Given the significant value of these ecosystem services, and the fact that logging on national forests accounts for only 2% of U.S. wood supply, the National Forest Protection Alliance (NFPA) believes that industrial logging on national forests is no longer needed.

Typical of NFPA’s previous publications, this report delivers in-depth, on-the-ground profiles of some of the country’s most endangered national forests and provides an ecological status report of the current state of the national forest system.

Read Report (PDF) 10MB


 

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