From the Duluth News Tribune
Plans unveiled in recent days by the Superior National Forest to open thousands of acres near the Echo Trail to logging has environmentalists on alert.
The plans, announced in Friday's Federal Register, call for logging about 16,000 acres in the "Echo Trail Area Forest Management Project," roughly between Ely, Lake Vermilion and the Echo Trail.
It's one of the first big logging projects under the Superior National Forest's new long-term management plan adopted last summer.
Carol Booth, project team leader for the Superior National Forest, said the plan calls for clear-cutting on 16,000 acres spread across 126,000 acres in the management area.
"This is just the first step in the process. Now we put the proposal out for public comment for the" Environmental Impact Statement, Booth said.
The Sierra Club on Wednesday criticized the logging plan, saying it will allow cutting nearly to the edge of the BWCAW and will bring clear-cuts, new access roads and ATV traffic into an area that had once been proposed as official roadless area.
Sierra Club activists said it's the largest timber sale in the Superior Forest in more than a decade.
Timber industry interests say opening up more federal land to logging is critical for the region's loggers and mills, noting the Forest Service has been reducing the number of acres open to logging in recent years and that timber supply has been restricted.
Booth said the proposed logging will help eventually move the area to include more jack pine, red pine and white pine -- a major goal under the new forest plan.
The public can comment on the proposed timber sale from April 8 to May 9. For more information go to www.fs.fed.us/r9/superior starting April 8 and click on projects and plans, or call (218) 666-0020.
