The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest is one of our state’s prized public lands. Its more than 1.5 million acres provide a safe-haven for endangered and threatened species, conserve carbon stocks, and provide recreational value for countless visitors and Wisconsinites. The US Forest Service is attempting to allocate 12,000 acres of mature and old-growth forest in Wisconsin’s only national forest, the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, for timber contracts, with over 1,000 acres allocated for clear-cutting. If completed, the Fourmile Vegetation Project will also include 1.2 miles of new road and 50 miles of road reconstruction. This project could have significant impacts that need to be studied before allowing this to happen.
Instead, however, the US Forest Service opted to do an unsatisfactory Environmental Assessment (EA) that does not fully consider the impact on the ecosystem.The Fourmile project area in the southwest corner of the National Forest, just east of Eagle River, includes some of the most biodiverse and ecologically important systems in the National Forest. This area includes old-growth and mature forest stands, as well as the threatened American Pine Marten and Wood Turtle.
A project at the scale of Fourmile would typically, and rightfully, warrant a full Environmental Impact Statement, which requires far more analysis than the issued EA did. Even with a streamlined process, the EA found:
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39% of the species analyzed are currently in decline. This includes the endangered American Pine Marten.
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Forest stands are already having trouble regenerating due to a lack of strong soil conditions and the surplus of whitetail deer in the forest, which commonly graze on saplings.
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This suggests that forest areas impacted by logging will have a far more difficult time regenerating due to current ecological conditions, which haven’t been fully accounted for by the Forest Service’s EA.
Allowing this project to continue without an adequate Environmental Impact Statement will have serious consequences for key species in the forest, threaten the ecosystem as a whole, and reduce the recreational value of the National Forest. An adequate environmental review, requiring an EIS as opposed to the short-changed and short-sighted EA, will serve to protect our public lands, the services they provide to visitors, native species, and the conservation of carbon stocks.
The Forest Service shortcutting the review of this project threatens our efforts to preserve public lands for all, as well as our fight against climate change and ongoing deforestation efforts. We need the Forest Service to stop and study the impacts before allowing anything to move forward.
Written by Trent Hopkins, Organizing Project Aide for the Wisconsin Sierra Club.
Sources: Environmental Law and Policy Center Fourmile Logging Project Alert for Allies, Environmental Law and Policy Center Fourmile Environmental Assessment Comments, Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest Logging Trends 2008-2019.