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[pct-l] From today's LA Times



From today's LA Times---
Although the headline is not technically accurate in using the term
'Wilderness' in the sense of official designation as we know it, the article
describes what some on this List contend:  in the big picture, our wild
lands are not so much imperiled by impacts like toilet paper, horses or even
by campfire rings.....
Please review to bottom:


 Thursday, October 15, 1998 

              California Is Losing 100 Acres of Wilderness a Day, Study Says 
                 Environment: Report warns of human encroachment in national
forests.
              U.S. agency says group is not telling 'whole story.' 
              By GARY POLAKOVIC, Times Staff Writer
               
                A study by an environmental group released Wednesday
                           concludes that California national forests are
losing their last
                      stretches of wild lands at the rate of nearly 100
acres a day. 
                           Logging roads, motorcycles and other human
encroachment
                      threaten remaining wilderness-caliber lands that
shelter wildlife and
                      provide refuge for an increasingly urban populace,
according to a
                      report by the California Wilderness Coalition. 
                           In the last 19 years, development has touched
675,449 acres
                      that the U.S. Forest Service had identified as
roadless and
                      wilderness-caliber in 1979--a loss of 11%, the study
concluded.
                      The figures do not include land formally designated as
protected
                      wilderness. 
                           At that rate, all the state's remaining forest
wild lands will be
                      degraded or gone by the end of the 21st century,
members of the
                      group contend. 
                           But Janice Gauthier, spokeswoman for the Forest
Service's
                      Pacific Southwest region, said many of the areas that
the report
                      counted as lost are within the 1.8 million acres that
Congress has
                      allowed to be designated for uses ranging from logging
to mining to
                      road-building. She ascribed the agency's differences
with the
                      wilderness coalition as "philosophical disagreement." 
                           "There's nothing illegal and there's no scandal.
I'm not sure they
                      told the whole story," Gauthier said. 
                           The study shows that getting away from it all is
becoming
                      increasingly difficult in the nation's most populous
state. The portrait
                      contained in the report by the Davis-based Wilderness
Coalition
                      shows that as California's population surges, more
people will be
                      forced to share a shrinking amount of open,
untrammeled mountain
                      country. 
                           "These are California's last wild places," said
Paul Spitler,
                      executive director of the coalition, which represents
California's
                      leading environmental groups. "We can't bring back the
wilderness
                      we've already lost, but by acting now, we can save
what little
                      remains." 
                           Human impact on wild lands in the 18 national
forests within
                      California's borders are distributed unevenly, with
development
                      pressing hard into Southern California's mountains
while largely
                      skirting remote forests such as the Siskiyou in the
north. The
                      landscapes at risk include chaparral slopes in
Ventura, timbered
                      peaks near Lake Tahoe and the rain forests east of
Eureka. 
                           No forest has lost more roadless acreage than the
Los Padres
                      National Forest, a sprawling 1.8-million-acre expanse
of public land
                      stretching from Carmel to Gorman. Development and off-road
                      vehicle use has reached about 130,000 acres that were once
                      roadless, according to the report. 
                           Ojai resident Alisdair Coyne, conservation
director of Keep the
                      Sespe Wild Committee, says he has long enjoyed
relaxing hikes
                      deep in Los Padres. Yet in recent years, he has
encountered more
                      off-road vehicles. Lockwood Valley west of Frazier
Park has been
                      particularly hard hit, he said, as have areas around
San Luis Obispo
                      and Santa Maria. 
                           "They're letting off-roaders go wherever they
want, and that's a
                      shame," Coyne said. 
                           But California's heavily forested northwest has
seen more
                      encroachment than any other region, principally from
logging roads,
                      which have been built on nearly 248,921 acres of
national forest
                      land. That development accounts for more than a third
of all the
                      wild land losses identified in the study. 
                           The 340-page report, titled "California's
Vanishing Forests: Two
                      Decades of Destruction," is the first comprehensive
inventory of
                      California's national forest wild lands in nearly 20
years. 
                           Release of the document could increase pressure
on the Clinton
                      administration to impose a moratorium on road building in
                      California's national forests. Environmentalists seek
a total ban on
                      new road construction, although the Forest Service's
current
                      proposal would exempt much of northwest California. A
decision
                      on whether to impose an interim moratorium is expected in
                      November. 
                           
                                             * * *
                           Taming Forests 
                           More than 675,000 acres of the state's national
forests have
                      been significantly touched by development since 1979,
according to
                      the California Wilderness Coalition. Following are the
forests in
                      Southern California and acreage affected in each. 
                           Angeles: 9,818 
                           Cleveland: 750 
                           Los Padres: 130,067 
                           San Bernardino: 22,000 

                      Copyright 1998 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Of particular note to me is the attitude expressed in a similar AP article
today:

<SNIP>
The yearlong study recommends making the rest of California's roadless lands
off-limits to logging,
road construction, mining and other development. Spitler and co-author Ryan
Henson called on the
Clinton administration to revise its proposed ban on road construction,
which exempts more than
1.25 million acres in California.

Not everyone shares that view. Take retiree Harry Johnson, who has lived
almost all his life in Lake
Shasta in Northern California. That's not far from the 9,300-acre Kettle
Mountain area in
Shasta-Trinity Forest, which the report says has been devastated by logging
and road construction.

Johnson said logging is necessary to clear brush and provide grazing land
for the deer, elk and
turkeys that used to be more prevalent in the area.

``All this wilderness area is protected by state and federal lands,'' he
said. ``We don't need any more
locked up so that you can't use it for anything.'' 
-------------------------------------------------------------------

So what are we going to do about attitudes like THAT.......?

Kevin Corcoran
Palmdale CA









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