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TODAY Monday 22 September 1997 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site.

 

TODAY IN THE WORLD: More Logging and Fishing

A little while ago, I used this space to speculate about some basic industries ("Logging"; "Fishing"). Our colleague on the Hypermaterialism beat -- the formerly estimable Seth Zuckerman -- reaches some different conclusions.

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I recognize your proposal as a thought experiment, a conceptual test tube. But it is dangerous to believe that the only way to control the impact of logging is to exclude it from the landscape. Coupled with the recognition that we will and should continue to use wood, it implies that we will use the private land that much harder. To privatize part of the national forests means even more land where the priority use will be resource extraction, in addition to the richest, most productive lands, most of which are already privately held. (Most public lands are the ones that no one bothered to homestead, or claim under the Timber and Stone Act). Finally, I'd point out that private ownership of land does not mean there will be no conflicts over resource use anymore, as the struggle over Headwaters Forest indicates, and as we experience in my watershed, where 85% of the land is privately held and logging is a very hot issue.

Instead, I'd suggest this line of reasoning:

Public trust values such as water quality and fisheries are taking a beating on private land, especially with the ascendance of Habitat Conservation Plans as a way around the Endangered Species Act. Therefore, what public land we have ought to remain public, to give us a strong place to stand to protect those things we -- and the rest of the biota -- need.

Creatures do not recognize ownership boundaries. Therefore, the entire landscape needs to be considered in allowing logging or other development, not just the public land. It is entirely appropriate to tell timber companies how they may log, just as it is OK to tell homeowners how close to the lot line they may construct their buildings, or how fast you can drive on a public road.

Methods need to be developed that allow some logging while protecting the use of the land as habitat and watershed. E.g., selective logging, helicopter or balloon yarding, etc. The experimentation can best take place on public land, because it is unlikely that any but a few select industrial timber companies will do so on their own. In doing so, the Forest Service should stay out of old-growth forests, of course. The dichotomy that land can either be preserved or trashed for human purposes is false and dangerous. It ignores the possibility that land can be stewarded. I have seen it done.

In some cases, land that needs protection can most cost-effectively be protected by buying conservation easements to protect specific aspects (e.g., buffers along streams), and leaving the title in private hands.

Hope you don't mind me ranting. I'd also add, in response to your 9/3 fishing piece, that I have seen a lot of fishermen in Cordova, Alaska respect the regulation of their fishery -- because it is done wisely, by people close to the situation, in response to actual data collected day by day during the season. The fish are either there or not, and there's no dispute about it. It helps that there is generally enough to go 'round, even if not every season is a record-breaker.

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OK. Anybody else want some of this?

 

TODAY ON THE SITE:

Lots of new and newly revised High Fives. For the new you might try Mark Ritchie on Eco-Labeling. For the newly revised give a look to Kieth Bartholomew on Land Use.

 

Recent "Today" columns:

9/19: "Here, Sir, the People Rule"
9/18: Dr. Pangloss and the Land Mine Treaty
9/17: Outsourcing Pollution
9/16: In the Preservation of the Funky
9/15: The Problem With Health
9/12: The Automobile Crisis of 2020
9/11: Gratifyingly Inept Adversary
9/10: The Porkbarrel Works for You
9/09: Climate Change Changes
9/08: More or Less Voluntary Simplicity

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