Idaho environmentalists say that while the Senate
debated cutting subsidies for logging in September, the Forest
Service withheld politically damaging evidence that logging on
steep slopes harms forests and native fish.
After
heavy rains triggered 905 massive mudslides during the winter of
1995-96 on the Clearwater National Forest in central Idaho, agency
officials ordered an investigation of the causes and extent of
damage to streams from 400,000 cubic yards of debris. The
Clearwater National Forest Landslide Assessment Study was due last
February, but the date was pushed back to August and then October.
Preliminary results released by Deputy Northern Regional Forester
Kathy McAllister showed that 58 percent of the slides were related
to logging roads.
Chuck Pezeshki, a member of the
Moscow, Idaho-based Wild Clearwater Coalition, called the report “a
political liability,” since it would show that streams are blown
out by mudslides from logging roads.
Clearwater
National Forest spokeswoman Deanna Riebe denied a connection
between the Senate debate on road subsidies and the agency’s
delayed report. She blamed a staffing shortage for the tardiness in
making the report public. The new release date is Nov.
1.
“We’re looking really closely at what impact
roads had on the slides. And we’ll change our management practices
accordingly,” Riebe said.
The agency’s
preliminary results showed that 29 percent of the mudslides were
natural, and 12 percent came from logged slopes, according to
McAllister.
To receive a copy of the report when
it is released, call Doug McClelland of the U.S. Forest Service’s
Northern Regional Office at 406/329-3351. To contact the Wild
Clearwater Coalition, call Larry McLaud
208/882-1010.
* Jason Lenderman
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Activists wade through mudslides.
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