Help Save Ohio’s Crown Jewel—the Shawnee State Forest
State management practices are destroying the Shawnee State Forest near Portsmouth through promoting commercial logging and prescribed burns instead of focusing on recreation, environmental stewardship and other benefits. The Division of Forestry of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources manages the 63,747 acre forest primarily for logging, although a recent Ohio State University study concluded that Ohio does not need the wood it logs from its state forests. The study concludes that policy makers have a rare opportunity to focus on providing other benefits on these public lands.
The Shawnee, Ohio’s largest state forest, includes the state's only protected Wilderness Area which consists of 8,000 acres. This breathtaking woodland, known as the “Little Smokies,” is among the most biologically diverse temperate forests in the world, supporting as many as 30 canopy tree species at a single site. The forest is home to one third of Ohio's threatened or endangered species.
In the Shawnee, clear-cutting is the timbering practice of preference. Clear-cutting is the logging practice of removing all trees and other vegetation down to the bare soil. The Division of Forestry routinely logs up to 1,000 acres per year in the Shawnee. However, since the 2003 ice storm, over 7,000 acres have been cut. New logging roads have been built on steep hillsides and beside beautiful hiking trails.
Unfortunately, clear-cutting is not the only destructive practice happening on the Shawnee. The Division of Forestry has also implemented its open-ended prescribed burning plan. A prescribed burn is the intentional burning of the forest. The Division claims these burns are initiated to regenerate oaks, although prescribed burning for oak regeneration is experimental and extremely controversial among experts. Even amidst this disagreement, 7,868 acres are scheduled to be burned in Shawnee within the first five years alone!
Our public lands, which are supported by our tax dollars, should be a place where we can go and enjoy the beauty of nature. Not a place where we hike through clear-cuts and prescribed burns. The Division of Forestry needs to discontinue the destructive and extractive practices on our public lands and focus on protecting and restoring these diverse hardwood forests.
For more information contact Cheryl Carpenter at Voices for the Forest at 740-820-8425, info@voicesfortheforest.org or visit www.voicesfortheforest.org.
August/September 2008 Contents