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Forests and Wetlands as Public Domain
According to PEFC, the world’s largest forest certification system, the United States is the only major country in the world where the majority of forests are privately owned. In all other countries, most forests are publicly owned – that is, they are public domain. Transferring most privately owned forests and wetlands back into the public domain may be necessary if we are to keep threatened, endangered, and declining species from going extinct.
While ownership of forests, wetlands, and other ecologically valuable lands and waters is spread among a wide array of corporate and individual owners, there are certain groups with large holdings of forests and wetlands. For example, Weyerhaeuser Lumber owns over 13 million acres of land in the US and Canada. The ten largest individual landowners in the US combined, own about an equal amount.
Few unbiased observers would suggest that our forests are being harvested sustainably. Actually, the timber industry needs to be phased out if we are to maintain the other species on this planet – and not sacrifice those species to the private profit of investors. There are plenty of other products from adobe to Hempcrete, recycled plastic, concrete, cement, clay, brick, steel, straw, cinder block, etc… which can replace lumber in almost all of its commercial uses.
Given that many tree species in the US take hundreds or thousands of years to mature, and provide habitat and biotic community for innumerable animal, bird, amphibian, and other species, how does one justify cutting down a 500 year old Douglas Fir or a 1,000 year old Redwood, or a 2,000 year old Sequoia? We have no guarantee that any Douglas Fir, Redwood, or Sequoia will ever grow to maturity again – no matter how many hundreds or thousands of six inch seedlings are planted as penance.
We need to develop a legal, economic, and social mechanism to transfer large tracts of privately owned forest and wetlands back to the public through conservation groups and government agencies. And the taxpayers should not be paying exorbitant amounts to reclaim these lands for wildlife. We should not have to pay more for forests and wetlands than the owners of these properties have claimed on their property tax returns in recent years.
Some people make the argument that we need to keep the timber industry growing robustly, as it provides badly needed jobs in rural areas. But this is a specious argument, as based upon this logic, one could justify cutting down every tree in North America, and sending most all other non-human species into extinction. (These forests and wetlands are vital to the survival of the human species, as well.)
Public Ownership of Forests by Country
Only 43% of the forests in the USA are publicly owned. In western Europe, the proportions of forest lands that are publicly owned are 54% in Germany, 77% in Greece, 66% in Ireland, and 68% in Switzerland. By comparison, 100% of forests are publicly owned in Russia, with public ownership also dominating in the Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic Countries, other former Soviet countries.
In Brazil, although the Amazon River Basin Forests are a world treasure, the amount of forest and jungle in existence is declining rapidly as homesteaders, farmers, loggers, livestock grazers, and miners all cut down tracts of jungle and stake their private (illegal) claim on lands that were formerly a revered part of the public domain.
Our forests and wetlands are declining rapidly (as are the species that depend upon them).
We need to view forests, rivers, lakes, and wetlands as parts of our common wealth, rather than as exploitable private properties to be harvested unsustainably, and sold to the highest bidder.
Deforestation
According to Save America’s Forests, a Washington DC based environmental organization, decades of rampant clear cutting in Our National Forests Is Ruining America's Last Wild Forests. America was once covered with one billion acres of towering primeval forests. These forests were teeming with plants and animals, a treasure-trove of evolutionary diversity and biological richness. Giant, centuries-old trees had trunks more than 15 feet wide and soared to the height of 30 story skyscrapers.
In the past 500 years, aggressive logging and development have destroyed over 95% of these original forests. The last remnants of America's virgin and natural forests, with their unique and irreplaceable life, reside mostly on our national forests. Deforestation is occurring on a massive scale in our national forests and is clearly visible from space. Satellite photos show that the rate of clearcutting in places like the Olympic National Forest of Washington state equals or exceeds the destruction in the Brazilian rainforests. Without immediate action, the last of the original forests in this country will soon be lost.
For decades, citizens have attempted to stop Forest Service destruction of our public forests by using the timber sale appeals process, lawsuits, and participation in national forest planning. Despite all these efforts, the Forest Service continues to allow private timber companies to clearcut old growth and roadless forests throughout our national forest system, destroying critical forest habitat, ruining important recreational areas, and violating the public trust.
The cost to the American people in environmental damage and wasted tax dollars is staggering. Increased species extinction, flooding, and landslides are examples of the destruction resulting from clearcutting in fragile forest watersheds. Natural forests act as giant sponges that regulate the flow of water into streams and rivers. During and after rain, the trees and shrubs hold vast amounts of water in their trunks and leaves, and their roots bind and stabilize the soil.
Clearcut areas don't absorb water. Instead, when heavy rains come, clearcut areas allow for rapid runoff, causing flooding and erosion. The floodwater transports tons of silt, clogging waterways. In steep areas, the earth can no longer resist the pull of gravity and pulls away in a landslide. Downstream in the valleys, homes and lives are ruined by a wall of water and mud. Homeowners and legislators have the gall to demand government subsidies to repair the damage. In recent years, major floods and landslides in California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho have caused billions of dollars of damage to public and private property. Many people were injured and some were even killed. Some landslides were directly attributable to clearcut forest areas.
This tragedy of deforestation on our public lands is multiplied by the fact that taxpayer dollars help subsidize the clearcutting of our national forests. Billions of dollars are allocated to the Forest Service to pay the costs of building logging roads and administering timber sales. The timber industry buys the subsidized timber. The result is private profit at the expense of destruction of the public forest.
Natural forests are home to thousands of native plants and animals interconnected in a delicate web of life. Each organism is interdependent on the other. The spotted owl eats voles, a small rodent. Voles eat fungi and disperse the fungi spores in their waste which then grow in the ground on the roots of the giant trees. The fungi are essential to helping the trees take up vital nutrients through their roots from the soil. Each organism plays a role in the healthy functioning of the forest. The forest is teeming with life, from common insects living in rotting logs on the forest floor to rare moss and lichens that only grow in the branches of trees, high in the forest canopy.
Because of massive forest destruction caused by clearcutting, the web of life in our forests is unraveling. The earth is experiencing a wave of extinction. The leading cause of extinction is destruction of native habitat by such human activities as clearcutting and the construction of logging roads. Continued clearcutting in the national forests leads to the loss of more species.
After centuries of logging, less than 5% of this country's 1 billion acres of original forests remain standing. In the lower 48 states less than 1% of the original forest remains in blocks large enough to sustain the native plants and animals. According to the principles of conservation biology, to sustain natural forest ecosystems, large "core" forest areas need to be completely off limits to logging, roads, and other man made intrusions. The forests surrounding the "core" areas can sustain limited amounts of logging, but not too much. Clearcutting should not be used at all if the surrounding forest is to sustain the natural ecology.
Core forests are areas of biological diversity, such as our national forest and national park systems. These core forests need to become off limits to logging and to road building. Only a small, strictly limited amount of ecologically sustainable "selection logging" can be accommodated outside the protected areas, and clearcutting must be strictly prohibited. Given that many tree species take hundreds of years to reach maturity, any cutting of these trees is unsustainable.
America's last remaining unprotected Ancient Forests are among the premier "core" areas. Millions of acres of these spectacular forests in the Pacific Northwest and the Sierra Nevada need to be protected for future generations. These forests of thousand-year-old trees are home to the endangered spotted owl, the marbled murrelet, fishers, martens, and other animals emblematic of America's wildlife heritage. The lifeblood of these pristine forests are crystal clear streams which provide habitat for endangered salmon and trout. These Ancient Forests are faced with the constant threat of logging, placing many species in danger of extinction.
Logging and road building in roadless forest areas also need to be prohibited throughout this country. The Rocky Mountain region has the largest unroaded areas in the lower 48 states. Some roadless forest areas in this region remain mostly as they were before Columbus set foot on this continent, wild and untamed. This is the only region in lower 48 states where the grizzly still roam free. Massive new logging and roadbuilding projects in these national forests are already degrading this region, however. With light rainfall, mountainous terrain, and fragile soils, these forests are particularly vulnerable to clearcutting. Once timber companies clearcut these forests, they will never grow back – at least, not within the next few centuries.
The giant sequoias are one example of a 'special area' needing protection. Sequoias are among the largest, longest living trees on earth -- they can live for up to 2,000 years, so some have been here since the time of Christ. These ancient sentinels grow in a limited area of the Sierra Nevada Mountains; confined to about 150 secluded groves. Although some of these groves are protected within national park boundaries, many groves lie in the national forests -- unprotected.
In a misguided policy, the US Forest Service has unbelievably allowed logging all around these fragile Giant Sequoia groves.The sequoia grows naturally in stands of trees with many other species, such as Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir. Logging within the sequoia groves threatens the existence of the sequoia. It exposes the trees to the full force of the wind and kills the intertwining root systems that help keep the sequoia standing. We must protect the remaining groves of giant sequoias that live on lands owned by the US Forest Service. From all over the world people come to see these giant forests. Our national heritage must be protected for the benefit of all Americans – and not destroyed in an effort to help timber company stockholders.
There are many other special areas around the country, less well known than the giant sequoias, but equally stunning in their beauty and biological richness. Like the giant sequoia groves, the Sipsey wilderness of Alabama, and the Cochetopa Hills of Colorado are threatened by clearcutting and road building.
The Sipsey Wilderness in Alabama
The Sipsey wilderness is located in the Bankhead National Forest in Alabama. The Sipsey is a wonderland of diverse hardwood forests dissected by mysterious canyons harboring rare plants and secret waterfalls. Noted for its outstanding biological diversity, half of all fern species in Alabama are found in the Sipsey along with 147 species of birds and 53 kinds of amphibians and lizards. Migrating songbirds find rare habitat in the interior forests. Flowing through the wilderness is the Sipsey River. It is designated a Wild and Scenic River, and is home to an endangered species of freshwater shellfish.
The U.S. Forest Service has allowed destructive clearcutting throughout most of the Bankhead National Forest, degrading the entire ecosystem and threatening the survival of the Sipsey Wilderness area itself. The Forest Service has been destroying the diverse species of plants and animals throughout the Bankhead National Forest, and replacing these beautiful natural forests with sterile tree farms. We must require the Forest Service to stop clearcutting throughout the Bankhead National Forest, and to prohibit logging in the Sipsey Wilderness. For all the talk of “restoring forests,” this concept is really a contradiction in terms – these forests will never truly be restored.
The Cochetopa Hills of Colorado
The forests of the Cochetopa Hills are spread throughout three national forests in the southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the Gunnison, the Grand Mesa and the Umcompadre. The Cochetopa Hills are known for unusual mixed stands of conifers. Ponderosa pine, Bristlecone pine, aspen and Engleman spruce are found growing together. This is just one aspect of the Cochetopa Hills' high biological diversity.
Cochetopa means "pass of the buffalo" in the Ute language. This descriptive name reveals the unique quality of the area as an ecological interface zone and important wildlife corridor. The pass at Cochetopa is low elevation, creating vital winter habitat and migration corridors for many animals such as black bear and elk. Distinctive interior wetlands also attract wildlife to this semi-arid part of the Rockies. These rare wild forests are threatened with destructive logging and roadbuilding.
In 1995, the timber industry pressured Congress to pass a bill that suspended all environmental laws on the national forests for 2 ½ years, and increased logging of rare, previously protected Ancient Forests. The Ancient Forests, the roadless areas forests, and other biologically critical forests were clearcut and degraded. We need to act to protect our forests forever, and not succumb to the pressure of for-profit industry lobbyists.
At least a few of our elected officials agree with the need to protect our forests. According to US Congresswoman Anna Eshoo of California, "We need a 180-degree turn from the federal government's current approach to managing federal forests. Instead of encouraging federal agencies to continue looking for ways to sell off this nation's natural heritage at below market prices, we must preserve and enhance forested areas for future generations."
Forests are in Decline throughout the World
The situation in our forests and wetlands is bleak.
An environmental organization called Conserve Energy Future has gathered a few facts that illustrate the situation:
It is estimated that there will be no rainforests left on Earth in 100 years
Half of the world's tropical forests have already been cleared.
Agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation
Loss of forests contributes between 12 an d17 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions
There are hundreds of natural remedies in the rain forest which could be used as medicines
The US has less than five percent of the world’s population, but consumes 30% of the world’s paper
20% of the Earth’s oxygen is produced in the Amazon rainforest
About 30,000,000 acres of land in South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia are converted from forest to agriculture each year
Over one billion people around the globe depend upon forest products for their livelihoods, thereby contributing to deforestation
Half of the world’s timber is consumed by Europe, the US, and Japan
Fuel wood in sub Saharan Africa is consumed in quantities 200 times greater than the annual growth rate of the trees
Tropical rainforests which cover 7% of the earth’s surface, contain over half of all the plant and animal species in the world
Deforestation affects the water cycle. Trees absorb groundwater and release the same into the atmosphere during transpiration. When deforestation happens, the climate automatically changes to a drier one.
And so on…