A consortium of six scientific groups reports that
the Eastside forests of Washington and Oregon are in perilous
ecological shape. According to the scientists, who did their work
at the request of seven U.S. representatives, the forests are
almost completely fragmented or debased, and streams are in such
bad shape that “large numbers of fish and amphibia taxa now face
extinction in watersheds throughout the Eastside.” There are a host
of villains: road building, logging, fire suppression and grazing.
The situation is so serious that the scientists have made draconian
interim recommendations: Do not log any late
successional/old-growth forests; do not cut any tree older than 150
years or with a diameter greater than 20 inches; do not log
dominant or codominant ponderosa pine from any forest; and permit
livestock grazing in riparian areas only under strictly defined
conditions. The report was edited by James R. Karr and Ellen W. Chu
at the Institute for Environmental Studies, University of
Washington, Seattle. Participating groups were the American
Fisheries Society, the American Ornithologists’ Union, the
Ecological Society of America, the Sierra Biodiversity Institute,
the Society for Conservation Biology, and the Wildlife Society.
Copies of the 245-page report are available from
the Wildlife Society, 5410 Grosvenor Lane, Bethesda, MD 20814-2197
(301/897-9770). The cost is $15 to Wildlife Society members and $18
to others.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Grim reading.
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