In one of the most significant U.S. government land conservation actions in history, President Clinton announced steps to permanently preserve 40 million acres of national forest. He said, “National forests are more than a source of timber. They are places of renewal of the human spirit and our natural environment.” The plan can go forward without congressional action, as it relies only on regulations to be developed by the U.S. Forest Service with public approval. He also directed the Forest Service to determine whether an additional undeveloped 15 million acres should be protected.
The proposal, under immediate Republican attack, designates 20 percent of national forests as wilderness, preventing road-building in two-thirds of remaining undeveloped forests. Only Jimmy Carter who preserved 103 million acres in Alaska and Teddy Roosevelt, who created five national parks and 120 million acres in national forests, safeguarded larger tracts of land.
Road-building, the precursor to extractive activities, is presently prohibited in a mere 18 percent of the 192 million acre national forest system. “This initiative should have almost no effect on timber supply,” Clinton explained. “Only five percent of our country’s timber comes from national forests and less than five percent of this timber is being cut in roadless areas. We can easily adjust our federal timber program to replace five percent of five percent, but we can never replace what we might destroy if we don’t protect these 40 million acres.”
Clinton made it clear he intends to make the executive order permanent by the time he leaves office. With enough support in Congress, however, Republicans could block the order. Alaska Governor Tony Knowles, for example, promised to fight the proposal if it includes the Tongass National Forest.
Steve Holmer, American Lands Alliance said, “Roadless areas are not only the last best place for wildlife, but also are a source of clean drinking water for tens of millions of Americans.” According to a World Wildlife Fund and Conservation Biology Institute study released to coincide with the announcement, only five percent of U.S. land is completely protected, way too little to maintain many animal and plant species. Most protected land is in the western states. Alaska and California may seem to have a large portion of land protected at 35 and 19 percent, respectively, but much of this land is high elevation rock and ice. States east of the Mississippi River have less than one percent of their land area protected. And most protected areas are less than 10,000 acres which is too small a contiguous area to maintain healthy wildlife populations.
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