Download Document - The Wilderness Society

© Erin Paul Donovan
Our coalition is opposing a logging project proposed for White Mountain National
Forest (above). In Georgia’s Chattahoochee National Forest (right), we are part of an
initiative to improve wilderness management.
NEW MEXICO
The Organ Mountains are named for
the needle-like extrusions of granite
that resemble organ pipes. Ranging up
to 9,012 feet, their outline ripples the
horizon just east of the fast-growing
city of Las Cruces in Doña Ana County.
The Organ Mountains are home to 870
species of vascular plants, pronghorn,
mule deer, quail, golden eagles, and
many other species. Migrating duck
and threatened grassland songbirds
depend on the Organ Mountains during
their long journeys.
We are building public support
for S. 1024, which would permanently
protect more than 241,000 acres of
wilderness and create 159,000 acres
of national conservation areas in the
Organs and elsewhere in southern
New Mexico. For example, the bill
would protect the gorgeous volcanic
cliffs and buttes of Broad Canyon and
the grasslands banking up against
the cinder-cone and mantled basalt
upthrust of the Potrillos Mountains.
Included are seeps and springs of
clean water feeding into the Rio
Grande. Please urge your representatives
in Congress to support this
legislation, introduced by the state’s
senators, Jeff Bingaman (D) and Tom
Udall (D).
Michael Casaus 505-247-0834
michael_casaus@tws.org
www.wilderness.org
NORTHEAST
The Table Mountain Roadless Area inside
New Hampshire’s White Mountain
National Forest would be logged—
and in some locations clear-cut—under
the U.S. Forest Service’s proposed
“Northeast Swift” timber project. The
land is visible to the north from the
famous Kancamagus Scenic Highway.
This is the eighth timber project
proposed in the forest’s roadless areas
since 2005, and we have submitted
comments outlining our strong opposition.
Standing trees in large blocks
of mature forest store carbon that
otherwise would exacerbate global
warming, and they provide highquality
wildlife habitat. In northern
New England, the federal government
is the landowner best able to create
and sustain mature forest conditions,
so that should be the management
priority rather than creating additional
early successional habitat. Timbering
makes sense in some locations, but
not in roadless areas, which feature
mature forest. Moreover, this proposal
does not make economic sense.
Pristine national forest land supports
recreation and tourism, the region’s
largest revenue generators Timbering
produces much less revenue. To read
our comments, go to: www.wilderness.
org/NH-Roadless.
Ben Rose 802-222-7068
ben_rose@tws.org
SOUTHEAST
In anticipation of the 50th anniversary
of the Wilderness Act in 2014, the
chief of the U.S. Forest Service created
the Chief’s Challenge, with a goal of
having all wilderness areas in national
forests achieve certain management
standards by that date. To help the
agency in Georgia’s Chattahoochee
National Forest, we assigned David
Cohen, a ranger in our new Southern
Appalachian Wilderness Stewards
(SAWS) program. He is surveying visitors
on their use of five wilderness areas:
Blood Mountain, Raven Cliffs, Tray
Mountain, Mark Trail, and Cohutta,
which adjoins Tennessee’s Big Frog
Wilderness. He also provides visitors
with information, including the Leave
No Trace principles. Funding from the
National Forest Foundation has made
David’s work possible.
We also have been active in
Arkansas’ Ouachita National Forest,
where an April tornado had forced closure
of the popular Ouachita National
Recreation Trail. We assembled a crew
to spend a week helping Friends of
the Ouachita Trail reopen the route,
which was blocked by 30 fallen trees.
Because we were inside a wilderness
area, power tools were not permitted,
so we used cross-cut saws and axes.
SAWS has been teaching this type of
non-mechanized tool use to southeastern
trail clubs’ volunteers, introducing
a new generation to stewardship of
wilderness trails.
Brent Martin 828- 587-9453
brent_martin@tws.org
© Bill Hodge
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