Forest Service retirees question wilderness expansion plan

From the Hood River News:

ForestService retirees question wilderness expansion plan 


August 27, 2008 


By RAELYNN RICARTE 


Hood River News staff writer

Two former high-ranking officials from the U.S. Forest Service contend 
thatexpanding Wilderness areas on Mount Hood will create numerous 
managementchallenges. 


Linda Goodman and George Leonard believe that retirement has affordedthem 
the opportunity to speak freely and so they can represent the views of 
manyemployees with the federal agency. 


Goodman was the Region 6 Regional Forester until this spring and 
supervisedactivities in 17 national forests — more than 25 million acres 
— in Oregon andWashington. Leonard served as associate chief for the 
federal agency until1993 and is the current president of the National 
Association of ForestService Retirees. 


Both administrators have many concerns about the latest Wilderness bill,
known as Oregon Treasures. That proposal by U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, 
D-Ore.,and Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., seeks to add 132,000 acres of 
Wilderness to theexisting 186,200 acres. The legislation is awaiting 
review by the House whenCongress reconvenes in September. A similar plan 
— calling for 127,000 moreacres of Wilderness — has been stalled in the 
Senate since 2007. 


Goodman said 4.5 million people visit Mount Hood each year because ofits 
proximity to the Portland metro area. She said a visitor study undertaken 
bythe forest service within the last several years revealed that 67,000 
peopleeach year came to the mountain solely for the Wilderness 
experience. 


The remainder of respondents pursued other recreational interests, suchas 
skiing, mountain biking and camping in developed sites, some of which 
wouldbe eliminated under Oregon Treasures. 


“I think this proposal could be doing an economic disservice to thepublic 
and communities around the mountain,” said Goodman. 


She said it would be more appropriate for Congress to impose a National 
RecreationArea designation rather than Wilderness. 


She said NRAs provide protection for natural resources but leave camp 
sitesopen, accommodate mountain biking, which is prohibited in 
Wilderness, andallow greater efficiency in maintaining hiking trails. She 
said chain sawscould still be used to clear away trees that fall across 
pathways. Mechanizedequipment is prohibited in Wilderness so cross-cut 
saws are used to clean uptrails. 


Goodman said the task of sawing up a downed tree then becomes solaborious 
that Forest Service employees can’t keep up with the workload. Shesaid 
there are not enough volunteers to make up for the lack of manpower. 


“They don’t have enough funding to maintain the Wilderness they haveright 
now, and this plan will be a real problem for employees,” said Goodman. 


She believes the purpose of the 1964 Wilderness Act would not be met by 
scatteringmore “small narrow corridors” across the slopes of the 
mountain. She said theexisting Mount Hood Wilderness, at 47,160 acres, 
and the Salmon-HuckleberryWilderness, 44,600 acres, are large enough to 
serve as a pristine getaway forhikers. If Congress decides to mandate 
more Wilderness, Goodman said, itshould be attached to the larger 
locations that are already in existence. 


“We all believe in Wilderness but the little spurs in Oregon Treasures 
don’tmeet the intent of the Act to provide solitude,” said Goodman, whose 
careerwith the Forest Service spanned 34 years. 


Leonard expects Hood River County to face challenges if the bill is 
approved.He said having the newly expanded Wilderness abut a section of 
the county’smanaged forest near Post Canyon creates the potential for more wildfires. 


He said insect-riddled and diseased trees are more at risk during 
lighteningstrikes. He said while infested trees can be treated within the 
national forest,they must be left alone in the Wilderness. 


“If I had land that was immediately adjacent to an area classified as 
WildernessI’d be pretty concerned,” said Leonard. 


“I would expect to have my ability to suppress problems significantly 
reduced.”
Goodman said even if an exception is made and mechanized equipment is 
allowedinto the Wilderness to combat a fire, there might not be a way to 
reach theblaze. She said the primitive roadways once used for timber 
harvest cannot bemaintained and some are obliterated altogether. 


“Putting equipment in there means that you have to be able to get there;
and without a road nearby, you can’t do that,” said Goodman. 


She said fires are considered a “natural phenomenon” in a Wildernessarea 
and managed with a lighter touch unless they threaten public safety. She 
saidthese fires can burn “explosively” because of the dead and dying 
trees so theyare harder to contain once ignited — and more dangerous for 
firefighters tobattle. 


John Marker, a retired forest service employee and upper valley 
orchardist,believes expanding Wilderness will threaten the most valuable 
resource on themountain — its water supply. 


“Water is critical to our way of life and the engine for a substantial 
partof our local economy,” he said. 


He said a fire that burns hot enough in the Wilderness to sterilize 
topsoilcreates the potential for erosion since nothing can grow there. He 
said evenrains cannot penetrate the damaged earth and that is not 
acceptable when MountHood’s watersheds provide drinking water for more 
than one million people —and irrigation water for hundreds of local 
farms. 


“Once a fire gets started in a Wilderness area and starts moving, itwill 
go where it wants to go,” said Marker. 


He supported development of a customized management plan for the “urban”
mountain that was called for in a 2006 bill co-sponsored by Blumenauer and 
U.S.Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore. That plan would have established stringent 
rules forprotecting resources, recreation and other uses. 


Marker, Goodman and Leonard agree that adding more Wilderness to Mount 
Hoodcould end up threatening not only resources but recreational 
opportunities. 



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