WildLaw and the Tuskegee National Forest
WildLaw has spent years working through the courts and through the
administrative processes to protect the Tuskegee and get better management for
it. Those efforts are bearing good fruit. We have not just stopped bad things
for the sake of stopping them; our work has produced a totally new management
style in the forest. The National Forests in Alabama have also agreed to go
forward with restoration programs on every National Forest. These restoration
programs involve determining scientifically what is needed to be done to reverse
past mismanagement and restore natural forest ecosystems. These programs
represent the first time ever that the Forest Service has fully dropped
commercially-motivated logging entirely in a National Forest and adopted
scientifically-driven restoration in its place. This means that Alabama and the
Tuskegee National Forest are leaders in the nation in restoring native forests
on public lands.
Threats
The Tuskegee National Forest faces an uncertain future. Without strong
community-based advocacy for the forest, it may languish. Illegal dumps threaten
the water quality and scenic beauty of the forest. Encroaching incompatible
development lessens the value of the forest as an eco-tourism magnet. Loblolly
pine plantations left over from the past mismanagement are biologically barren
zones that are not good habitat for any wildlife. Those plantations need
restoration into native forest types like Longleaf Pine that can provide good
wildlife habitat; the Forest Service has begun
this important restoration work, but decades of
work lie ahead, and that can only be sustained
through long-term community involvement. Old growth areas along the streams need to be surveyed and
protected.
Opportunities
Despite the problems and the threats, there are great opportunities for
people to get involved and help the Tuskegee National Forest.
The current management plan for the forest is being revised by the Forest
Service, and making it as protective as possible with good restoration
management is key. WildLaw has worked for more than seven years on this revision
of the management plan, and your being a part of a community group working to
help the Tuskegee will make the plan better.
The new Longleaf Pine restoration program has been put into place and
recently started for the Tuskegee. Public participation in that program and
comments on how to make it the best it can be was a vital role for local people,
who helped make it a model for other forests to follow.
People who care for the forest need to get involved with Alabama’s
congressional delegation to get more funding for the forest and money to buy
additional key parcels of land around it to make it better.
Community people and organizations can develop cooperative plans with the
Forest Service, such as the recent clean up and fixing up of the formerly
run-down Tsinia Wildlife Viewing Area. Groups are needed to work on cleanups of
roadsides and to get rid of illegal garbage dumps.
A great education effort is needed to make people in this part of Alabama and
throughout the nation more aware of the Tuskegee National Forest and what values
it holds. This forest could be a centerpiece for high-value, nonpolluting
eco-tourism for the area. With all its unique habitats and room for wildlife,
the forest is a natural teaching laboratory for local schools and universities,
but the forest has seen very little use for that purpose.
There is a lot that can be done for and with the Tuskegee National Forest
that will enhance it and the surrounding community. All that is needed is you.
Join The Friends of Tuskegee National Forest.
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