Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 6, 1994 TAG: 9403060066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The idea is to coordinate management strategies within the southern Appalachian ecosystem.
The study will delay revisions in forest management plans, which cover protection of endangered species, timber harvesting, recreation and more.
The announcement was made from the agency's southern regional office in Atlanta.
Bob Joslin also was named regional forester, the top job in the 13-state area. Joslin is deputy forester for the Intermountain Region, based in Ogden, Utah.
Jefferson National Forest, which covers about 710,000 acres in Western Virginia, will be part of the new study, spokesman Dave Olson said Friday.
The forest began revising its management plan last year, as required every decade. Olson said the new five-forest study will delay by at least a year the completion of the Jefferson's plan, originally targeted for December 1995.
The other four forests are the Chattahoochee, Cherokee, part of the Sumter, and the Nantahala-Pisgah. The forests lie in Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Environmentalists were counting on winning modifications to the plans, which were adopted in the 1980s, to lessen the emphasis on timber harvest and give more emphasis to recreation, wildlife and conservation.
Ken Landgraf, chief planner for the Jefferson, said he doesn't have many details on the new study. Representatives from the five forests will be meeting later this month in Asheville, N.C.
"We don't want to have all five forests going out in their own direction," which often has often been the case, Landgraf said.
The forests will study subregional supply and demand of timber and recreational opportunities, private land vs. public land issues and approaches to ecosystem management, Landgraf said.
He said the delay would not affect work on the Jefferson's environmental impact statement for a proposed power line. The forest, as required by federal law, is reviewing the potential impact from a 765,000-volt power line proposed by Appalachian Power Co.
Olson said George Washington National Forest, farther north, was not included because it recently completed its management plan.
The Associated Press contributed information for this story.
by CNB