Sierra Club Fact Sheet

Wayne National Forest 

Notice of Intent to Revise the Wayne National Forest Management Plan

The US Forest Service is preparing to revise the Wayne National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan. As part of this process, the Forest Service is engaged in the "scoping" phase for drafting an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The Draft EIS and draft revised Forest Plan are expected to be available for public review by December 2004 with final copies of each expected before 2006.

Sierra Club Position

The current management plan for the Wayne National Forest is inadequate to protect the forest. The new Forest Plan should incorporate the following:

End commercial logging in the Wayne National Forest
Forest products account for well under 1% of Ohio's gross state product; 95% of the state's wood and paper products are harvested from private lands; less than 4% of the nation's timber supply is derived from national forests. Continued timber harvesting in the Wayne is clearly not necessary to support local economies and is not an appropriate management technique for the forest. The forest is home to a number of endangered, threatened, and sensitive species, all of which rely heavily on the existing timber resource and have been especially harmed by clearcutting. An end to commercial logging is necessary to adequately protect and repair the forest ecosystem.

Increase adequate wilderness forest areas
At least one large, significant, and contiguous unit of the forest in each of the Wayne National Forest districts must be managed in a wilderness condition and groomed for adoption into the Wilderness Preservation system. This will help to adequately preserve and restore the biological integrity of the forest, develop habitat for existing and future species, and promote primitive types of recreation. The existing Wayne National Forest Management Plan protects less than 10% of the forest from extractive activities, while nearly 85% of the forest is subject to timber harvest and 60% is managed using even-aged techniques.

Preserve old growth areas
The revised plan and its associated environmental impact statement should identify the old growth resources in the Wayne National Forest and prohibit all harvesting of old growth trees. The entire forest must be managed with the ultimate goal of preserving stands of old growth within each unit and district throughout the national forest. Old growth not only provides wildlife habitat, it also provides ecological stability, solitude, and beauty.

Increase land acquisition
The Forest Service should enter an aggressive program of acquiring land to create a contiguous forest that can be adequately managed for biodiversity, species and habitat preservation, and other purposes. At a minimum, land purchases should be planned to provide corridors between already existing parcels to allow movement and migration of plant and animal species through and between such parcels. Special attention should be paid to protecting watersheds, natural forest areas, and areas that are potential habitat for endangered, threatened and sensitive species.

Moratorium on future road building and elimination of unnecessary roads
Future road building must cease in the Wayne National Forest and existing unused and unnecessary roads must be phased out. Excessive road building within the forest contributes to the problem of habitat fragmentation. Just over a year ago, nearly two million citizen comments confirmed that Americans favor the preservation of roadless areas. The necessity of existing roads must be thoroughly evaluated, and the revised forest plan must establish an aggressive effort to abandon and re-vegetate all unnecessary roads within the forest boundaries.

The Sierra Club also has additional concerns on a variety of issues:

• Analysis of existing mineral, oil, and gas rights
• Protection of forest watersheds and wetlands
• Species protection, preservation, and reintroduction
• Management and removal of invasive-exotic species
• Implementation of a prescribed burn policy
• Restoration of damaged habitat
• Balancing recreation values

Public Comment & Hearings

About the Wayne National Forest

The Wayne National Forest is made up of 232,000 acres spread across the Appalachian foothills of 12 counties in Southeast Ohio. The current federal land holdings make up only 28% of the area originally designated as the boundary area for the Wayne. The entire forest makes up a mere 1.2% of the state's land base. Ohio ranks 7th among states in population and 47th in public lands per capita.

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