Wasting the Wayne, Ohio’s Only National Forest

Posted by Jeffrey St. Clair on July 10th, 2008 | Link

A new study commissioned by the regional forest protection organization Heartwood concludes that the U.S. Forest Service’s 15-year management plan for southern Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (WNF) ––Ohio’s only national forest––does not maximize net public benefits as required by law. Assessing costs and benefits of the plan, the 200-page study by GreenFire Consulting Group, LLC, concludes, “It is questionable whether the Wayne Management Plan provides any net benefits to the public.” (p. 10)

The study’s authors, economist Christine Glaser, PhD, and Karyn Moskowitz, MBA, found that proposed management activities have substantial economic costs to the public while providing questionable public benefits. “The sum of extractive and destructive activities proposed in the 2006 Forest Plan will lessen the attractiveness of the forest and will negatively impact tourism. They will also diminish the capacity of the WNF to deliver ‘ecosystem services,’ such as water purification performed by the natural filtration systems of the earth and carbon sequestration provided by the trees and other forest plants. These ecosystem services have a much higher value to society than the timber that is taken out.” (p. 10)

Calculations based on a wide body of literature put the value of forest ecosystem services––which also include air purification, water flow regulation, biodiversity, and recreation––at an average of $1,800 per acre per year compared to timber’s value of $250 or less per acre per year. Based on a value of $1,800 per acre per year, the study estimates that Wayne ecosystem services could be worth $381 million per year. (pp. 12-13) These services are diminished by the Plan, which designates 70 percent of the Wayne’s 238,000 acres suitable for logging and proposes to log 18,441 acres and burn more than 68,000 acres (over a quarter of the Wayne) over the next decade. 46,215 acres will be burned “for an unproven ‘oak regeneration’ program and 21,904 acres to reduce questionable ‘hazardous fuels’ risks.” (p. 9) The study critiques these burn programs and finds them economically as well as environmentally unsound.

Cheryl Carpenter, of Portsmouth’s Voices for the Forest, warned, “The smoke from those fires increases health risks for people with respiratory and cardiovascular disease, influenza, and asthma, and especially harms the elderly and children.”

“Our chances for attracting new business are diminished by the region’s high pollution levels. People want to come to areas that protect natural resources, not areas that are sacrifice zones,” remarked Buckeye Forest Council Executive Director David Maywhoor. Southeast Ohio has one of the highest air pollution levels in the nation. Four Wayne counties are in noncompliance with EPA particulate standards.

Air pollution in the region, including particulates, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and nitrous oxides (NOx), will also be increased by the Plan’s proposed expansion of Off-road Vehicle (ORV) trails by up to 125 miles. The Forest Service plans to expand the ORV trail system in an attempt to decrease unmanaged ORV activity, identified as a major threat to National Forests by USDA’s 2004 National Strategic Plan.

“The Forest Service expects to spend over $3 million on new ORV trails. Many of these new ORV miles could be converted from illegal trails. So the Forest Service will reward illegal activity at great public expense and with no clear public benefit,” Mark Donham, Heartwood Program Director, noted. “The Forest Service admits that it can’t even adequately monitor existing trails. It also provides no data to show that converting illegal to legal trails actually decreases illegal activity,” he added. ORVs are banned from the Monongahela (WV), Hoosier (IN) and Shawnee (IL) National Forests.
The study provides extensive data on the higher popularity and greater economic value of other recreational activities in the Wayne, including nature viewing, hiking, sightseeing, and picnicking. Since these activities are largely incompatible with ORV use, the Plan harms rather than benefits the region economically by favoring ORVs over these more environmentally benign and more popular activities.

Proposed Plan activities will also significantly increase damage from other major threats identified by the National Strategic Plan. The study concludes that forest fragmentation will increase on the vast majority of Wayne acreage, including fragmentation of very rare and valuable interior forest, mainly due to logging to produce less valuable and regionally much more available brushland or early successional habitat. The study proposes that, instead, relatively intact forest be protected as future old-growth, because this highly valuable forest type “cannot be expected to be provided by private land owners.” (p. 129) The spread of non-native invasive species (NNIS), already present in much of the Wayne and a serious threat to imperiled and federally listed species, will also likely increase under the Plan. Prescribed burns, logging, and other soil disturbing activities on tens of thousands of acres will create favorable conditions for further spread of NNIS.

Responding to the report, Andy Mahler, Heartwood Network Coordinator, said, “In these times of sky-rocketing gas prices, many Ohio families will opt for staycations – vacation time spent closer to home. The Wayne National Forest has the potential to provide a variety of great vacation destinations, but that potential is being squandered by logging, mining, burning and drilling the forest, which despoil the natural beauty and solitude.”

The Wayne Plan was approved in spite of extensive critiques by individuals and organizations and legal challenges by Heartwood, Sierra Club, and the Buckeye Forest Council. Heather Cantino, Buckeye Forest Council Board Chair, stated, “The GreenFire study is an important next step in the ongoing campaign by Heartwood and the Buckeye Forest Council to challenge damaging Forest Service activities. Opposition to the plan now requires citizens to lobby their representatives in Congress to halt the serious economic and environmental consequences of this critically flawed plan.”

Full report, summary and recommendations available at http://heartwood.org/Wayne_Economic_Analysis/