The Issue - Facts
Did You Know…
Characteristics of the Daniel Boone National Forest1
· The Daniel Boone National Forest (DBNF) covers over 702,000 acres of fragmented, mixed mesophytic forest along the western escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau in Eastern Kentucky.
· The Daniel Boone National Forest (DBNF) is home to over 3,000 miles of cliff line.
· In 1985, there were 5 species on the DBNF listed as threatened or endangered. By 1997, there were 37 listed species. Some of these species exist nowhere else in the world but this forest.
· The DBNF contains 3,100 archeological sites, which makes this forest #3 in the nation for sites of historical and cultural significance.
· There are already over 2,445 miles of legal roads on the Daniel Boone National Forest. This does not include the many miles of illegal, user-created trails that off-road vehicle riders have blazed all over the forest.
How much of Kentucky’s forestland are we talking about?2
· 93% of Kentucky’s forests are controlled by approximately 307,000 private landowners. These lands can be logged, mined, destroyed or developed at any time with close to no restrictions. The other seven percent of Kentucky’s forests are publicly held by the DBNF, Land Between the Lakes, National Park lands, military installations, state park lands, state forests, state-run wildlife management areas, city and county parks. The DBNF represents 4.8% of Kentucky’s forestlands.
*With so little of Kentucky’s forests under public ownership, these lands should be protected from commercial extraction and held for the irreplaceable public values they provide: unparalleled wild land recreation opportunities, clean and intact watersheds, climate regulation, a haven for biodiversity, and a place for wildlife to live in peace.
Jobs vs. the Environment?3
· According to a US Forest Service Study, recreation provides 38 times more income and 33 times more jobs than logging.
· 74% of the jobs created by the National Forest system are in the recreation industry. Logging provides only 3% of the jobs in the system.
*When you consider that logging ruins recreation opportunities for hikers, backpackers, paddlers, wildlife observers, fishermen and others, it becomes clear that local economies would be better off without logging on public lands. The expansion of the recreation industry that would be made possible by the absence of scenes of destruction on public land would clearly more than make up for the loss of 3% of the job base from logging.
*Also, we need to work towards employing former loggers of public land to do restoration work on these same lands. There is much work to be done eliminating and revegetating old roads, replanting trees, stabilizing eroding stream banks and hillsides, and eradicating exotic weeds. See our link to the National Forest Protection Alliance for more information on legislation currently before Congress that would do just that.
What good does logging the DBNF do for me?4
· None. The Forest Service loses over a billion dollars of taxpayer money a year on the federal timber sales program.
Who supports logging the Daniel Boone National Forest?5
· 74.2% of Kentuckians oppose logging on public land. Where do you stand?
What about coal mining on the Boone?6
· 75% of the minerals under the DBNF are privately owned and can be mined at any time. Only 25% of the coal under the forest is controlled by the Forest Service. Still, the Forest Service allows private companies to mine this federal coal from under the Boone.
· 95% of Kentucky’s electricity is generated from coal.
· Kentucky ranks 8th in the nation for energy consumption per person. Kentuckians use 22% more energy than average Americans.
*If we take steps to maximize our energy efficiency and transition into sustainable energy sources like wind and solar, we can eliminate the pressure to mine federal lands altogether. The 30% of the DBNF that can be protected from mining should always be protected for the values that can only be guaranteed on unmined land – intact watersheds, protected wildlife habitat, and wild land recreation.
1 Daniel Boone National Forest, Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Current Off-Road Vehicle Policy.
2 Kentucky Environmental Quality Commission, “State of Kentucky’s Environment” Status Report, 1994.
3 US General Accounting Office, Report #GAO/RCED-95237FS-Sept. 95.
New York Times, “Get Used to New West, Land Managers Tell Old West”, Feb. 12, 1998.
4 US General Accounting Office/ US Forest Service.
5 University of Kentucky Survey Research Center, Poll, 1995.
6 Kentucky Environmental Quality Commission, “EQC State of Kentucky’s Environment”, 1997.