Kentucky Heartwood Challenges Major Timber Project on Kentucky’s Daniel Boone National Forest9/15/2017
Rare Species and Restoration Take Back Seat to Logging Plans
Kentucky Heartwood has filed a formal administrative objection (“pre-decisional objection”) challenging the approval of the Greenwood Vegetation Management Project on the Daniel Boone National Forest in McCreary and Pulaski counties. This project would be the largest timber project on the Daniel Boone in 13 years, and would allow commercial timber harvests on over 2,500 acres of public lands, along with a wide range of other management actions including the construction of 139 log landings, planting of shortleaf pine, herbicide use, and over 10,600 acres of prescribed fire.
The objection focuses on the Forest Service’s unwillingness to focus restoration activities in areas most impacted by the severe southern pine beetle outbreak that lasted from 1999 to 2001. The objection also addresses the agency’s failure to survey for many rare, declining, and threatened species, as well as their lack of adequate consideration in the Environmental Assessment for how management could harm or benefit these species. “Instead of focusing restoration efforts where they’re most needed, the Forest Service is going where the timber is. This is a case of genuine restoration needs getting sidelined by the Forest Service’s continued emphasis on logging,” said Jim Scheff, Kentucky Heartwood’s Director. National forest lands in the Greenwood project area are home to a wide range of rare and declining species, as well as unusual, rare natural communities including native grassland remnants, sandstone glades, and Appalachian seeps. Fire suppression and past logging have degraded many of these habitats, and appropriate management could help toward the recovery of some species. Both Kentucky Heartwood and the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission repeatedly requested that the Forest Service survey and manage for state-listed threatened and endangered species, including rare wildflowers like Quill flameflower, Eastern wood lily, Appalachian sandwort, and Eastern silvery aster. The Forest Service asserts that they are not required to survey or manage for these species – a contention that Kentucky Heartwood has challenged in the objection. “There are real opportunities to get this right. But the Forest Service needs to take a step back and re-evaluate their plans,” said Scheff. The project also includes 222 acres of broadcast spraying of herbicides in wildlife openings, a matter of particular concern to some area residents. “There are always trade-offs in land management. But we don’t think it’s acceptable to log thousands of acres of our public lands in the name of restoration, all the while ignoring many of the species and sites most in need of help,” Scheff added. Kentucky Heartwood was joined in their objection by the Center for Biological Diversity and area residents Elizabeth and Michael Loiacono. Kentucky Heartwood was founded in 1992, and seeks to protect and restore the integrity, stability, and beauty of Kentucky’s native forests and biotic communities through research, education, advocacy, and community engagement. 
9/19/2017 10:10:54 am
I agree that wildlife and plant species should be studied and protected. This entire area is valuable for its diversity of plants and animals, I have objected in the past and do now to the use of herbicides. Broadcast spraying will inevitably burn up more than the invasives. Finally as a neighbor with a farm and tourism business nearby, logging operations are a menace on our roads. And if the logging occurs will locals get the business? 10/25/2017 06:08:13 pm
By coincidence I’ve just completed an analysis of the timber management intensity and poverty level on the Daniel Boone. The Daniel Boone National Forest is young: proclaimed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937 with the Red Bird Purchase Unit established in 1967. In contrast to the national forests in the west, which were created mostly from never-harvested public domain land, eastern forests were formed from cut-over and repeatedly burned lands purchased from private owners. I must point out that the rare plants, grasslands, glades, and seeps of concern survived this devastation. The forest is currently harvesting 2% of its annual timber growth on unreserved timberland while 24 times that volume dies each year. Comments are closed.
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