Planning and implementing forest operations to achieve ... - Woodweb

ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS AFFECTING forest planning processes "did not anticipate the
FOREST OPERATIONS ON PIJBLIC LANDS magnitude of shifts that would occur in how people
IN THE CENTRAL APPALACIHANS _
value wildlands and natural resources as our society
moved from rural to increasingly urban settings and
by lifestyles.., and in general from utilitarian to
preservation perspectives." To broaden the spectrum of
John E. Baumgras
issues included in the planning process and more
Northeastern Forest Experiment Station effectively address environmental concerns associated
USDA Forest Service
with the former "multiple use" or ecosystem
Morgantown, West Virginia, USA
management paradigms, National Forest staffs now
include specialists from several natural resourcerelated
disciplines.
ABSTRACT: Located in the central Appalachians, the
Monongahela National Forest contains a variety of
In this paper I provide a qualitative assessment of the
forested ecosystems that provide abundant supplies of environmental issues and concerns affecting forest
high-quality hardwood timber and extensive
operations on public lands managed for multiple uses,
recreational opportunities. Efforts to sustain these
and discuss how forest operations are changing to
forested ecosystems have created a complex array of
satisfy changing public values.
environmental concerns that affect forest operations.
The 1986 Land and Resource Management Plan for the The Monongahela National Forest, located in eastern
Monongahela identified several important areas of
West Virginia, is the general focus of this assessment.
concern related to wildlife habitat, recreation, and
Although the Monongahela is but one of several
water quality. Land-management objectives and National Forests in the Appalachians, its ecological
prescriptions for addressing these concerns are
diversity and variety of user demands imposed on the
discussed with respect to constraints on forest
Forest provide an opportunity to identify a wide range
operations and the need to plan forest operations on
of environmental issues. By giving the public a voice in
broad spatial and temporal scales, apply conventional
forest management, the National Forest planning
harvesting systems carefully, and identify opportunities process helps identify important environmental
to apply alternative harvesting systems,
concerns and forest values. Further, the Monongahela
represents a large block of public land in a region
Key Words: forest planning, timber harvesting, where most forest land is privately owned and public
environmental impacts
concerns related to forest operations often are focused
on National Forest lands. This was apparent during the
controversy over clearcutting in the late 1960's and
INTRODUCTION
early 1970's. During that time, the Monongahela was a
focal point in the national debate over management
On public lands, forest operations that include road
practices on public lands.
construction and timber harvesting are increasingly
being met by a complex array of challenges, many
The more important categories of public uses and
resulting from increased public awareness of and
environmental concerns are identified in the
concern for the environmental quality of public forests. Monongahela National Forest's 1986 Land and
During the 1960's and 1970's, some of these concerns Resource Management Plan (USDA Forest Service
resulted in federal legislation governing land-
1986). Other important sources of information include
management planning on National Forests. This
white papers prepared by resource specialists targeting
legislation mandated increased public involvement in
specific environmental issues, and interviews with
decisions affecting the management of these forests,
resource specialists at the forest and district level.
More recently, the planning and conduct of forest
operations have become even more complex as public
land-management agencies have embraced the concept
THE FOREST
of "ecosystem management." According to Salwasser
(1994), the laws of the 1960's and 1970's regulating The ecological subregions encompassing the
Monongahela include the Northern Ridge and Valley
Section and the Allegheny Mountain Section (McNab
_PresentedatthejointmeetingoftheCouncilOnForestEngineering
andInternationalUnionofForestResearchOrganizations Subject
and Avers 1994). With a variety of forest soils,
Group $3.04-00, Marquette, ML July 29-Aug, 1,1996. elevations ranging from 300 to 4,800 feet, and average
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