Tough choices in the Gifford Pinchot forest
Sunday, July 13, 2008 11:06 AM PDT
By Emily Platt
Printable version
E-mail this articleThe Gifford Pinchot Task Force learned a lot from community leaders in places like Kelso and Longview as we worked together on the mining proposal in the Green River Valley. We wouldn’t be celebrating the defeat of the proposal without the support of your communities. Thank you. And although plans for a mine on the edge of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument have been quashed, the future of our local volcano continues to be debated.
The limelight on Mount St. Helens has stirred talk of turning the Monument over to the National Park Service, and an advisory committee was commissioned by Congressman Biran Baird and Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray to consider the volcano’s future. So the issue of roads and access has resurfaced.
As most people know, the Task Force doesn’t support the connection of the 504 road across the blast zone, but people don’t often realize we actively work for federal and private funding for the Gifford Pinchot National Forest’s incredibly under-funded road maintenance program. We support increased maintenance for roads important to the public for hunting, hiking, camping, mountain biking, horseback riding, boating and fishing. We support road maintenance in areas where active restoration can substantially improve fish, wildlife and plant habitat. And we support roads-to-trails projects where local support and potential exists. We also support thoughtful removal of a portion of the GPNF’s 4,000-plus miles of roads in areas where the impacts to fish, wildlife and native plant communities are most severe.
While the Task Force will continue to work with partners to secure federal funding for the Forest Service road system, we have no illusion that this money will be flowing from the war-strapped federal budget anytime soon at the levels truly needed to address the massive backlog. Last year, Congressman Norm Dicks and Sen. Cantwell worked small miracles to deliver $40 million to the National Forest Service to address the road problem across the nation ,while the backlog on the GPNF alone is somewhere around $40 million to $50 million. The GPNF and taxpayers cannot afford to leave these unmaintained roads on the land for the next flood to cause millions more in additional damage to other resources and amenities like drinking water, fish and access to hunting grounds and campsites.
Investment in the National Forest road system is needed now, and that investment should include substantial increases in funding for both maintenance and decommissioning to reduce impacts to fish and wildlife and make the road system more manageable for the Forest Service. The Washington Watershed Restoration Initiative is working for a solution that will restore fish runs, protect community water supplies, and offer local contracting opportunities. For more information, please visit www.wawatersheds.blogspot.com
Emily Platt is the executive director of the Gifford Pinchot Task Force, a non-profit organization that works to protect and restore the ecosystems and communities of southwest Washington.
Loowit wrote on Jul 14, 2008 8:20 AM:
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