Public Forest Stewardship Under Threat

By Rob Riley

Part two of “The Forest Advocate” series

Recent actions by the current administration undermine the stewardship role the federal government has played for generations by drastically cutting essential staff from the USDA Forest Service – and by association the White and Green Mountain National Forests – and dismantling environmental assessments mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Instead of firing the professionals who manage these lands and weakening environmental protections, we need to equip them with the tools and resources that allow them to transparently manage public land to enhance the ecological, economic, and social benefits of forests. And while no one or no policy is perfect, public land management is based on public input, scientific analysis, and increasingly better practices – along with compromise – yielding thoughtful outcomes that can both protect the forest and provide resources for generations.

The public lands of the 30-million-acre Northern Forest – stretching across northern Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York – total approximately 7 million acres, including the Green Mountain and White Mountain National Forests, Adirondack Park, and Baxter State Park, as well as many more state forests. Consistent and long-term management of these lands – which exist in a diverse mosaic dominated by private land ownership – reflects sustainable land stewardship and serves as a foundation for a healthy, prosperous, and ecologically resilient future for this forested region.

We are fortunate that forest management on public lands has evolved to consider the multiple priorities that forests serve – water and air purification, carbon storage and sequestration, timber products, outdoor recreation. Today’s public forest management invites public input, is guided by science, and implemented by professional Forest Service staff to balance ecological health and integrity with the diverse and growing needs of society. This is a careful model informed by assessments of natural impact along with engagement of local communities and others who care about the forest to ensure that the diversity of interests is represented.

Close to Home

Take for example the nearly 800,000-acre White Mountain National Forest. The current Forest Management Plan calls for harvesting on 25,700 acres, or about 3 percent of the forest, over the current decade. Each timber harvest is unique and determined by the specific needs and goals set in the Management Plan, which may include producing timber, managing invasive pests, mitigating fire risk, enhancing wildlife habitat, and recruiting climate-resilient tree species. Beyond forestry and habitat treatments, Forest Service staff also manage 1,200 miles of hiking trails and monitor 138,570 acres of forest legally protected from harvesting – including no-touch Wilderness.

At a time when people are striving to have more contact with nature, with natural products, with clean air and water, when forest-related jobs are challenged through trade disputes, and when federal policies are having us look domestically for more products and services, shouldn’t we be investing in these public lands?

We need to ask what the Forest Service needs to steward these places and ask local communities how the federal government’s stewardship of forests can support local economies and jobs. We need to keep improving policies that balance efficiency with comprehensive review of proposed management and ensure that we have sufficient professional staff to administer them.

Instead of cutting into the deep knowledge and professional ranks of the Forest Service and compromising the public lands it stewards, now is the time to up our stewardship game and secure all the benefits the forest supplies. Recreation, including hiking, camping, mountain biking, fishing, and hunting, generates billions in economic activity, while timber harvesting supports the viability of relatively small, rural logging enterprises and the web of community connections they sustain – foresters, loggers, truckers, mills, hardware stores, restaurants, local services, and more.

Public lands provide extraordinary public benefits. We can’t afford to slash our investment in – and stewardship of – one of the country’s greatest assets – our public forests – and risk the negative impact on our communities, our economy, the forest’s health, and future generations.

Read the first commentary in this series: If not wood, what? If not here, where?

Staff Contact

Rob Riley

President, Canterbury, NH

Cell: 603-731-0563

The Forest Advocate Series

If not wood, what? If not here, where?

The Northern Forest Center believes public forests in our region can be managed to remain healthy and productive carbon sinks and habitats, while also providing wood we need for our daily lives.

Simple Solutions are Not the Answer for Saving Our Complex Forests

Let’s not fall prey to calls for blanket “hands off” management that cherry-pick science and ignore the much broader consensus that forest management can in fact support the underlying ecological conditions and complexity that ensures public and private forests are healthier and stronger for future generations.

Managing National Forests: Stewarding For Generations Requires Balanced Approach

While New England loses approximately 30,000 acres of forest annually to development and other land uses, national forests set aside land to provide essential ecological, economic, and social values to our communities.