Promoting Sustainable Logging on the Medicine Bow National Forest

This summer, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance announced the kick-off of its campaign for sustainable logging on the Medicine Bow National Forest of southeastern Wyoming by calling for an end to clearcutting.

According to the Forest Stewardship Council of the United States, a leading non-profit organization that certifies sustainable forestry practices, clearcutting is a not a sustainable method of logging in the Rocky Mountains. The Council’s Rocky Mountain Region standards for sustainable logging (www.fscus.org/images/documents/standards/STND_RM_final_V2.PDF) identify clearcutting as unsustainable because it “does not emulate natural processes.”


Coon Creek clearcuts in Wyoming’s Sierra Madre Range,
a failed attempt to increase water yield by clearcutting.
BCA’s campaign for sustainable logging is not only calling for an end to clearcutting, but putting forth alternative methods that ensure both that forest health is protected and that sustainable logging can occur. Alternatives to clearcutting are readily available. Group selection cutting, where cuts are no larger than two tree heights, and individual tree selection are widely used alternatives. Under the new long-range management plan for the Medicine Bow National Forest, group selection cutting is not only allowed, but encouraged. With alternatives like group and individual tree selection, we can have logging and healthy forests.

Clearcutting has ravaged the Medicine Bow National Forest. According to the Forest Service, nearly 80,000 acres of the Medicine Bow has been clearcut since 1950. The Snowy Range west of Laramie has experienced the majority of the clearcutting. Satellite images of the mountain range, which is immensely popular for forest recreationists, show a massive patchwork of clearcuts. In the years 2003 and 2004 alone, nearly 1,000 acres of clearcutting were authorized by the Forest Service.

Numerous scientific studies point to clearcutting as a serious threat to forest health. One peer-reviewed study, for example, co-authored by University of Wyoming Professor Dr. William L. Baker, found that the Medicine Bow National Forest has become unnaturally fragmented because of clearcutting. Forest fragmentation, which is where once-continuous forest becomes splintered into fragments, often prevents the free movement of wildlife. Studies have also found that clearcutting is harmful to songbirds, deer, and elk, and is responsible for a decline in old growth forest habitat.

Clean water is also at risk because clearcutting. Increased soil erosion, sediment pollution, and degradation of stream banks can occur as clearcutting removes vegetation that would otherwise protect streams.

Unsustainable logging remains a clear and present threat to the health of the Medicine Bow National Forest. Under the new long-range management plan for the Medicine Bow, the Forest Service is proposing nearly 2,000 acres of additional clearcutting. And last spring, the Forest Service proposed the Devil’s Gate timber sale, a massive industrial logging project that calls for over 500 acres of clearcutting in the Snowy Range near the Platte River Wilderness.

While the Devil’s Gate timber sale looms, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance’s campaign for sustainable logging will continue to pressure the Forest Service to end clearcutting altogether on the Medicine Bow National Forest. Keep your eyes open for future alerts related to the Devil’s Gate timber sale and for updates on the campaign for sustainable logging.