One of the Forest Service’s key rationales for expanding logging in roadless areas of national forests is drawing new scrutiny from an environmental group.
The Wilderness Society, which opposes the agency’s plan to lift logging restrictions in the areas, said the Forest Service’s claims that the limits put nearby communities at risk of wildfire are exaggerated.
At issue is testimony Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz gave the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in July, where he twice told lawmakers that 24.5 million acres of roadless area — or a large chunk of the 58.5 million acres covered by the regulation — is in or within a mile of the wildland-urban interface, a figure the agency has since backed away from.
The proximity of roadless areas to the WUI — where developments encroach on forests — is one of the top concerns that allowing more logging would address, said Schultz, a former timber company executive who became chief in March.
