2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Shawn Garrett)
The Trump administration proposes increased timber harvests in the national forests. Together with reduction of U.S.
Forest Service staff and the attempted weakening of the National Environmental Policy Act, this proposal is a recipe for disaster. Our district contains thousands of acres of national forest land. Historic photographs show naked land with no protection from erosion, and dead tree stumps providing perfect fuel for wildfires.
The catastrophic results led to establishment of the national forests. Our district depends on national forest land to moderate water runoff and control flooding. Hurricane flood waters have overtopped flood control dams, including the the largest earth dam east of the Mississippi.
Failure of these dams would have been disastrous for communities downstream. The 1949 flood, before the dams were built, illustrates the need to control runoff. The community of Stokesville was devastated, and there were three deaths in the town of Bridgewater.
Eighty 4-H campers were stranded, and had to be evacuated over Lookout Mountain. In addition, the cities of Staunton and Harrisonburg depend on national forest streams for part of their water supply. The Forest Service now does an outstanding job of managing our resources to balance timber harvesting with conservation and recreational needs.
The forest plans have been fine tuned over many years with extensive input from constituents. Uncontrolled increase in timber harvests, reduction of staff, and weakening of NEPA can only result in poor outcomes. Logging slash will fuel an increase in wildfires.
Loss of forest cover will cause increased flooding. Erosion and sedimentation will contaminate municipal water supplies. We should not disturb a complex system, developed with considerable thought, that is already working well.
Reese Bull, Mount Solon.
