The Allegheny National Forest has released its Draft
Environmental Impact Statement and suggests that the preferred
alternative chosen would be C, which appears to hold enough for all
sides.

Alternative C includes language that will emphasize balanced
forest age classes and habitat diversity. It also says that 60
percent of the ANF would be in management areas that have even-aged
harvest methods.

Twenty-five percent would be in management areas with
uneven-aged methods, and 15 percent would hold no active vegetative
management.

Two wilderness study areas are recommended for Tracy Ridge and
Chestnut Ridge, which totals more than 14,000 acres. Four remote
recreation areas are proposed as well, which means areas that would
be subject to minimum management activities, no new roads
constructed and some existing roads decommissioned.

The proposed remote recreation areas are Clarion River, Minister
Valley, Morrison, and Hearts Content. Total acreage of these is
about 4,670.

Alternative C also includes five proposed intensive use areas
for all-terrain vehicle and off-highway motorcycles use on
designated trails. There are four proposed limited equestrian use
areas.

Kathleen Morse, forest supervisor, said Friday morning that the
alternatives are not set in stone and could be mixed or matched or
adjusted if needed.

In common for alternatives B, C, and D are the following:
updated standards for herbicide application; updated standards and
guidelines for habitat protection for threatened and endangered
species and species with viability concerns; objectives, standards,
and guidelines for greater protection of riparian corridors;
adjustment of some management areas that will provide developed
recreation and considerable facilities; provision of management
area for management of recreation and scenic river segments on Wild
and Scenic Rivers; recommendation for expansion of the Kane
Experimental Forest; recommendation of Buckaloons as a designated
historic area; all previously identified RARE II areas do not allow
scheduled timber production and new Forest Service road
construction.

In alternative B, there is emphasis on increasing the amount of
younger forest habitat through regeneration timber harvest of
hardwood stands. Seventy percent of the ANF would be in management
areas that have even-aged harvest methods. Twenty percent of
management areas feature uneven-aged methods and 10 percent of
management areas would have no active vegetative management.

Also in alternative B is the greatest level of early structural
habitat conditions; the Clarion River area would be managed for
remote recreation; and the Minister Valley area would be managed
for interpretive recreation.

There are also no recommendations for additional wilderness
study areas in alternative B. Five intensive use areas for ATVs and
OHMs for use on designated trails would be available. Four
equestrian use trails designated trails would be made and open
riding would be permitted on most of the rest of the forest.

Alternative D would see the restoration of older forest
conditions in upland and northern hardwood forest types and would
offer the greatest acreage of uneven-aged land management.

Thirty-one percent of management areas would be even-aged
harvest. Fifty percent would be in management areas featuring
uneven-aged methods and 19 percent would have no active vegetative
management.

Also in alternative D, four wilderness study areas are
recommended for Tracy Ridge, Chestnut Ridge, Minister Valley and
Allegheny Front totaling about 30,000 acres. Six remote recreation
areas are also proposed in the Clarion River, Lamentation Run,
Hearts Content, Morrison, Longhouse and South Cornplanter
areas.

Language in alternative D also says there would be three
intensive use areas for ATV/OHM use on designated trails. There
will also be three limited equestrian use designated trails.

Alternative A is considered a continuation of the current (1986)
forest plan. This means that 92 percent of the forest would be in
management areas that would have even-aged harvest methods and the
rest would have no active management.

Equestrian use would be open across the forest; there would be a
few semi-primitive areas and non-motorized recreation.

Considered but eliminated parts of the alternatives include a
proposal from the Allegheny Defense Project, which would like to
see commercial logging and oil and gas development stopped on the
ANF.

Friends of Allegheny Wilderness proposed creating eight new
wilderness areas that would include about 54,460 acres, but not all
of the areas fit the criteria necessary. Some of the areas,
however, were used as remote recreation area proposals.

Also eliminated was the proposal by the Allegheny Trail Riders,
who wanted to see an additional 503 miles created in the ANF for
ATV/OHM opportunities.

Allegheny Alive proposed site selection for resorts, cabins and
trails, but that was considered out of the scope of the forest
plan.

Eight public meetings will be held, beginning Monday at the
University of Pittsburgh at Bradford in the University Room of the
Frame-Westerberg Commons Building from 4 to 8 p.m.

The plan should be complete in January of 2007.

Kathleen Morse, forest supervisor of the Allegheny National
Forest, said Friday in a statement that the draft plan is designed
to bring better balance and focus to the management of the ANF for
the next 10 to 15 years.

“This is an adjustment to our current management direction and
the general public will probably not notice dramatic changes in
what goes on in the forest or in the recreation opportunities they
currently enjoy,” said the release she read from.

The statement also says the ANF will continue a timber sale
program that will harvest up to one percent of the suitable
timberlands each year, which amounts to 56 MMBF in the preferred
alternative C.

The 1986 Forest Plan identified an amount of 94.5 MMBF, but that
changed by 1991 when officials realized they needed to reevaluate
that amount because of natural events such as tornado damage, tree
mortality and decline, and new management information. By 1995, the
ANF changed the number of the allowable sales to 53.2, but the
actual quantity sold averaged 46.4 between 1986 and 2005.

Late last year, a 12-point resolution supported by John Bortz, a
Warren County Commissioner, suggested that the ANF raise the amount
of timber harvested to 80 MMBF. A planning alternatives review from
Jack Hedlund, executive director of the Allegheny Forest Alliance,
made the same suggestion.

In the Draft Environmental Impact Statement released Friday,
information was provided regarding oil and gas drilling including
the fact that 93 percent of the subsurface is owned by private
parties.

At this time, reports the DEIS, there are an estimated 8,000
wells in production and 1,200 miles of oil and gas roads that take
up from 50,000 to 60,000 acres of the forest.

At this time, the report says, it is expected that 191,000 to
241,000 acres on the ANF may be developed.

Each well pad has a surface disturbance of 0.3 acres each as
well as .25 miles of new roads per well. Wells may remain in
production for 25 to 30 years, says the report.

The report also says that an average estimate of 512 new wells
drilled per year during the 15-year plan would yield an estimated
15,680 wells and 3,122 miles of private oil and gas roads.

While at the meeting, both Morse and Bill Donnelly, the planning
staff officer, said there was nothing they could do to stop the
drilling unless they purchased some of the land and they do not
have enough funds to do so.