Oregon Natural Resources Council (ONRC)

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                         March 31, 2006

                                                                  Contact:                    Matthew Fisher, ONRC, 503-283-6343 x 205
Dave Knutson, Chaco, Inc., 970-527-4994
Coley Malloy, Patagonia Inc., 805-667-4878
John Sterling, Conservation Alliance, 503-913-1706

Outdoor industry leaders, small businesses join to seek moratorium on logging and development in roadless lands

Portland, OR  - Nearly 50 outdoor businesses, including 8 from Oregon, sent letters to the US Forest Service this week requesting that roadless wildlands in America’s National Forests remain protected.  The businesses, which include such well-known names as The North Face, Patagonia, Salomon, and Yakima, noted that proposed development in roadless backcountry areas could negatively affect their businesses.

The outdoor industry generates approximately $33 billion a year from the sale of outdoor recreation equipment and apparel.  Industry leaders have long maintained that keeping backcountry roadless lands protected is important to their customers and businesses.

"America's pristine roadless forests are public assets that provide our customers with incredible recreational opportunities,” commented Casey Sheahan, CEO of Patagonia. “Without these wild backcountry lands, our business opportunities would be significantly restricted."

An article in the Wall Street Journal today highlighted how the outdoor recreation industry is weighing in against plans to open roadless wild areas to logging and development.

Dave Knutson from Chaco, a business that makes outdoor footwear and river sandals, noted that many of their customers are whitewater rafting guides.  “Our river guide customers rely on wild and pristine roadless lands for their livelihoods, and we rely on our customers,” said Knutson.   “Without these outstanding backcountry areas to recreate in, both our customers and our business would suffer.”

Current US Forest Service proposals to carry out logging projects and other destructive activities in roadless lands has also ignited controversy among outdoor recreation groups, hunters, anglers, and conservationists.  These groups point to public statements made by Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey where he assured Americans that roadless lands would be protected while states complete their roadless area management plans.

No state has yet to complete their roadless management plan.

“The Bush administration is going back on its pledge to protect these pristine wildlands,” said Matthew Fisher, Wildlands Advocate with the Oregon Natural Resources Council. “And they’re ignoring the importance of these areas to our communities and economy.”

Up until last year, roadless lands within America’s national forests were protected under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.  This immensely popular conservation measure safeguarded over 58 million acres of pristine wild areas from logging and development, including two million acres in Oregon. The Bush administration repealed these protections in May of 2005 and substituted a complex process where individual Governors must petition the Forest Service to restore protections for roadless wild forests in their states.

Earlier this month, the US Forest Service announced its intent to conduct logging projects on lands recovering from forest fire in the Siskiyou National Forest. The sales, called ‘Mikes Gulch’ and ‘Blackberry,’ will log hundreds of acres of roadless lands formerly protected under the popular 2001 Roadless Rule.  Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski has sent a letter to the US Forest Service office in Portland asking them to reconsider the plan to log in these sensitive areas.

The US Forest Service is also planning development in roadless lands on Mt. Ashland in Southern Oregon.

A report released yesterday by the Heritage Forests Campaign, entitled “Broken Ground,” documents the Bush administration’s plan to move ahead with roadless incursion projects throughout the country (available online at www.ourforests.org <http://www.ourforests.org>).

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