Locals react to logging road
closure plan
Tuesday, January 16, 2001
By Roger
Harnack
Clallam County, WA - In Olympic National Forest, approximately 2,900 miles of
road would fall under the program, said Tim McNulty, vice president of Olympic
Park Associates, an advocacy group dedicated to ``protecting'' public lands.
A plan to eliminate half of the existing ``old'' logging roads nationwide is
prompting reaction locally.
U.S. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck recently unveiled his plan to
eliminate half of the nation's old logging roads in the next 20 years.
Nationwide, the plan would affect approximately 380,000 miles of roads no longer
used for logging.
Dombeck called on forest supervisors to begin surveying old logging roads
and to plan to meet with the public to discuss the project.
While Olympic National Forest officials prepare to survey the logging road
system, some residents have already made up their minds about the plan.
``Probably half the roads have already been closed or destroyed,'' said Stan
Fouts, a retired Forest Service engineer and a forester opposed to closing
logging roads. ``We lose the ability to manage the forests when we lose our
roads.''
McNulty disagreed.
from Peninsula Daily News, 1/16/01
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