Jon Roush, president of the Wilderness Society, found
himself in an embarrassing position last month. The Nation magazine
lambasted him for selling timber worth $140,000 from his western
Montana ranch. Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair questioned
why a man paid $125,000 a year to protect wilderness would log
private land adjacent to a national forest when his group had
protested a timber sale there 12 years ago. “The head of the
Wilderness Society logging old growth in the Bitterroot Valley is
roughly akin to the head of Human Rights Watch torturing a domestic
servant,” wrote The Nation. When asked if he didn’t foresee the pot
shots, Roush responded, “We needed the money for back taxes. I
didn’t see a penny of the money myself – it all went to Uncle Sam.”
Roush, who is getting a divorce, said he had to either cut or sell.
Roush said the 420,000 board-foot sale was designed to promote
forest health and the development of old-growth ponderosa pines.
According to the contract, harvesters were required to use only
existing roads, adhere to 50-foot buffers around streams, protect
wildlife habitat and leave trees older than 90 years old. Roush
said the sale was not inconsistent with the principles of the
Wilderness Society, and that he has no plans to resign. “For most
people it’s a non-story.”
*Elizabeth
Manning
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A question of logging.
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