Forest Service releases Mark Twain management plan

11/23/2005
ALAN SCHER ZAGIER

Associated Press

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Visitors to the Mark Twain National Forest can expect more intentional fires, a greater emphasis on habitat restoration and largely unchanged limits on timber harvesting under a new management plan released Wednesday.

The revised plan seeks to strike a balance between economic interests and environmental protection, said Randy Moore, a regional supervisor with the U.S. Forest Service. The federal agency manages the 1.5-million acre forest, which sprawls across parts of 29 counties throughout southern Missouri.

"The Mark Twain National Forest is uniquely positioned to provide abundant multiple uses while conserving the ecology and culture of the Missouri Ozarks," Moore wrote in a report outlining the new plan.

Federal scientists and regulators looking to update the forest's current plan, adopted in 1986, considered five alternatives. The options ranged from a ban on commercial timber harvests to retaining the status quo.

As expected, the Forest Service adopted a plan it called "Alternative 3."

That option will classify 29 percent of the forest as habitat worthy of restoration to its natural state while doubling the number of acres burned over the next decade - a technique also used to promote habitat restoration.

Timber industry lobbyists objected to the increase in prescribed burning, a practice first used by American Indians centuries ago to improve their access to food and shelter.

"This is not the natural forest," said Jerry Presley, a consultant to the Missouri Forest Products Association and former director of the state Department of Conservation. "It is a condition they have arbitrarily decided to create."

Environmental groups, in turn, said they are disappointed the Forest Service didn't appreciably change the limits on timber harvesting.

The new standard is 103 million board feet of wood per year; the current limit is 105 million board feet annually, though harvests from the past several years have produced only about half that amount.

"The Forest Service puts it forward as a compromise of interests, but I think that's a real dodge from the issues," said Jim Scheff of the St. Louis-based Missouri Forest Alliance. "That's not how the public wants its national forests managed."

Presley, though, noted that several federal laws authorize timber sales in national forests, a practice he said also promotes ecological diversity.

"Timber management is good for wildlife purposes," he said. "It creates (favorable) conditions for certain kinds of species. If you just let the forest grow naturally, you're going to lose some of those amenities."

Forest activist Jim Bensman of Heartwood Forestwatch, which has sued the federal agency numerous times for what it calls a lax regulatory stance, said his group is already working on an administrative appeal of the Mark Twain decision - a precursor to a lawsuit.

"It probably will be an exercise in futility," he said.

The revised plan also extends areas of the forest where livestock grazing is prohibited and suggests 13 areas for consideration as designated wilderness areas.

One topic it does not address in detail is the use of off-road vehicles in the forest. A separate environmental analysis of a proposal to temporarily expand off-road access in designated areas of the Mark Twain forest will be released early next year, said Ronnie Raum, the forest's Rolla-based supervisor.

The complete management plan can be found on the Web at http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/marktwain.