August 19, 2008

HELP STOP CLEARCUTTING
in the
Medicine Bow National Forest

Spruce Gulch Logging Project
Draft Environmental Impact Statement

August 25, 2008 

TELL THE FOREST SERVICE

Destructive Backcountry Clearcutting Will Not Control Beetles or Eliminate Fire Risks!

This logging project is located about forty miles southwest of Laramie. It lies west, northwest of Highway 230 near Mountain Home, Fox Park, and Wyocolo.

High quality wildlife habitat in the vicinities of Pelton, Illinois, Badger, Six-mile, Elkhorn, and Porter creeks are within the project area.

Old growth lodgepole pine stands are already damaged by beetles, yet the Forest Service proposes more destructive logging in these important old growth lodgepole pine stands.

- The Spruce Gulch proposal does not adequately consider effects of existing and continuing beetle damage, lingering destruction from past logging projects or destruction that will result from additional Medicine Bow logging projects proposed for the near future.

- This logging project does not protect sensitive forest plants, wildlife, soil, watershed and stream quality, or preserve quality recreation opportunities.

- Clearcutting DESTROYS visual quality (scenic views).

- Clearcutting eliminates forest habitat for present and future generations of forest dependent wildlife.

- Backcountry clearcutting does not protect homes and other structures from wildfire.

- the Forest Service recently admitted nothing can be done, including clearcutting, to stop or even slow the beetle outbreak.

- most of the proposed clearcut units and other logging units are located in backcountry, far from any homes or structures. NOTE: Even leading Forest Service wildfire scientists claim that logging in backcountry is an ineffective approach to protecting private property and structures from wildfire.

- scientific studies show that beetle-killed stands of trees present no significantly greater wildfire threat than do healthy forest stands.

It makes no sense to destroy, further, an already heavily logged and beetle damaged Medicine Bow National Forest.

* Backcountry and Interior forests must not be logged under the guise of beetle control or protecting private property and communities.

* The Forest Service has openly admitted there is nothing it can do about the beetle outbreak. Logging in the name of the beetle infestation is a waste of taxpayer dollars.

* Logging, especially clearcutting, threatens soil stability, fertility, and overall watershed quality.

* Clearcutting is one of the most destructive forms of logging for interior forest wildlife.

* Logging threatens the viability of amphibians, birds, and interior, old growth forest wildlife (typically the most threatened group of forest dwellers). Entirely dependent on intact old-growth forests for their survival are, for example, the boreal owl, Northern goshawk, golden-crowned kinglet, brown creeper, red-breasted nuthatch, pine marten, lynx, Abert’s squirrel, black bear, heather and red-backed voles, pygmy shrew, Northern leopard frog, and Boreal toad.

* Five plants listed as Region 2 Forest Sensitive Plants, including the lesser yellow lady’s-slipper orchid and narrowleaf grapefern will likely be impacted by this project.

* The Forest Service has promised to protect lynx habitat and its travel corridors. Remind the Forest Service to keep this promise.

* Studies have also found that undisturbed, old-growth forest supports a greater diversity of birds, a greater abundance of breeding birds, and higher diversity of small mammals than any other forest habitat in their study areas. These findings underscore the importance of old-growth as central to the preservation of biodiversity on the Medicine Bow National Forest.

* Private property owners and communities should carve out "defensible spaces" to protect development from forest fires.

* The Forest Service should focus its fire protection efforts where home and structure ignition risks are greatest, in accordance with the Forest Service’s own experts that claim treating a 200-foot zone (in many cases) around vulnerable structures is most efficient and effective.

Please Send Your Comments by August 25, 2008

Larry w. Sandoval, Jr. District Ranger
Laramie Ranger District
2468 Jackson Street
Laramie, WY 82070 

comments-rocky-mountain-medicine-bow-laramie@fs.fed.us

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