July 28, 2003

Healthy Forests Needed In Mississippi
by James L. Cummins

For the first time, I have found something that I agree with Greenpeace on - "Mississippi's forests are at risk." It is due to a lack of protection, restoration and management, not over cutting. Many of our forests are overcrowded, stressed and susceptible to fire and disease, besides being poor wildlife habitat.

The Healthy Forest Restoration Act is a federal bill that would empower federal land managers with the tools to implement scientific management practices on federal forests to reduce catastrophic wildfire while establishing new programs for conservation and fighting devastating insect pests such as the Southern pine beetle.

My favorite title of the bill is the Healthy Forests Reserve Program. It will restore one-million acres of declining forest ecosystem types that are critical to, amongst other things, the recovery of threatened and endangered species. The longleaf pine ecosystem in South Mississippi will be a major beneficiary of this program. On Earth Day, the Bush administration announced a special, 500,000-acre sign-up in the Conservation Reserve Program dedicated to bottomland hardwoods (oak).

The Southern Forest Resource Assessment commissioned by the Clinton administration ranks urban sprawl as the greatest threat facing Southern forests. The study stated that by 2020, about 12 million acres could be lost to urban uses and an additional 19 million acres are expected to be lost by 2040.

The study shows that a decline in "natural" forest trees is taking place, while pine plantations are increasing. They project that pine populations in the South are going to increase from 32 million to 54 million acres by 2040. All the natural forest types, such as oak and longleaf pine, are projected to decline.

Our National Forests have been very beneficial in providing habitat for species such as the Louisiana Black Bear, the red-cockaded woodpecker and the gopher tortoise. However, to improve their habitat we should not end timber sales as Greenpeace advocates. We should manage the stands to their benefit. The worst thing that could ever happen would be for timber to not have economic value and we neglect our forests or allow them to go to other uses - such as concrete and asphalt.

We can't put our forests in a lock box. They are living systems and will change with or without us. We have to restore them. We have to manage them. We have to protect them. These basic principles will allow us to have healthy forests - which includes clean air and water, quality fish and wildlife resources and strong communities for generations to come.

James L. Cummins is Executive Director of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Stoneville, Mississippi. Known as "Wildlife Mississippi," the Foundation is a non-profit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant resources throughout Mississippi