Roadless Rule repeal will return forests to multiple use
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 23, 2025
The front page of The July 12 Herald presented the blaring headline “Rollback opens path for logging at Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie” (‘How Roadless Rule repeal will affect forest like Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie,” The Herald) This was obviously intended to shock and panic the reader into some kind of defensive action. However in contrast, my reaction (and that of undoubtedly many folks in the rural areas of the state) is “well good, it’s about time.”
The bias of the article was also made clear by your writer’s choice of the Pilchuck Audubon Society and Conservation Northwest as her “experts” on forest management. Why no comment from practicing foresters or owners of the few remaining forest product companies in the area?
Here are a few facts: The Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest is slightly over 1.7 million acres. Of that total 827,000 acres (roughly half) are actual designated Wilderness, where no management activity is allowed. In addition, the quoted 336,000 acres of “Roadless Areas” became backdoor, mini-wilderness areas making them also off-limits to any resource use.
The concern expressed by Audubon regarding the impact on bird species is nothing new. The spotted owl was used to stop National Forest logging in the 1980s. As a result for 40 years now there has been no appreciable logging on Forest Service managed land, and yet the spotted owl population continues to decline. The obvious reason is the increasing habitat domination by the barred owl, a little fact Audubon would like to ignore. Simply the evolution of Mother Nature in progress. The area’s marbled murrelets are at the extreme southern end of their range where their food sources and habitat are marginal. Populations of that species increase dramatically up the B.C. and Alaska coastlines.
One must draw a distinction between national parks and national forests. The former exist strictly to protect unique areas for recreational use. The latter are meant to be managed for multiple uses (including active timber management) under the Multiple-Use, Sustained Yield Act of 1960. For the last 40 years the national forests have been pressured by vested environmental industry interests into being run as poorly managed parks. All the while, roads have been allowed to deteriorate and over-mature timber continues to rot and be wasted. Hopefully the roadless area rescission will return our local forest to more balanced professional management.
Ron Baker
Arlington
