From Flagstaff Activist Network (check out their new site!)

Comments are needed right away to help stop a huge grab at some of the last Remaining Old Growth trees in Arizona. Tell the Forest Service to ditch the whole project.

The North Kaibab Ranger District is hoping to open the North Kaibab National Forest in the area of last summer’s Warm Fire to “salvage logging.” This sensitive region, which is in close proximity to the Grand Canyon National Park, ought to be permitted a natural restoration rather than an unjustified and destructive logging project. The Forest Service decided to let the fire burn naturally as a tool for wild land restoration and quickly lost control of the fire. Now they would like to “address restoration needs” by turning this area over to logging interests in order to “recover the economic value from the burned timber.” This irresponsible proposal allows for the removal of 84.5 million board feet on over 9,000 acres of forest.

With the exception of hazard tree removal adjacent to roads and structures for legitimate public safety goals, there is no ecological recovery value to be obtained by salvage logging in the Warm Fire area. In fact, there is a substantial body of scientific evidence to indicate that salvage logging impedes recovery goals, and is counterproductive to the Forest Service’s work to stabilize the area, lessen the risk from flooding and erosion, and prevent the invasion of noxious weeds.

The North Kaibab Ranger District is seeking public comment on this issue.

Take Action: Comments needed by January 26, 2007.

You can do this through the FAN website.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 9:44 am and is filed under environmental injustice, local politix. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.