Over the course of the last 7 years, I have investigated many of the issues related to our forests, public timberlands and private management. As a forest/wildlife photographer I have covered literally hundreds of thousands of miles of forestland in the United States & Canada.

A question that I have been asked many times is, what is the cost of environmental preservation?

An interesting question and one that I’m sure no one can accurately define. However, I did run across an fascinating assessment that’s at least food for thought.

A friend of mine, Jerry Leppell in Forks, Washington, cruised Olympic National Park several years ago just to answer a similar question. Olympic National Park is about 998,000 acres and averages 70,000 board feet per acre (maybe more, but taking into account the alpine regions... ) The value of that timber is estimated at $2000 per thousand board feet (most of that being prime timber). That equals roughly $140 billion dollars. If we add in the value of the finished lumber, the value of the products made from that lumber and the value of the jobs created by those products,.... it could more than cut the national debt in half!

Am I suggesting that we clearcut Olympic National Park? NO I’m not suggesting that!

What I am suggesting is, now that we know what it’s worth.... wouldn’t it make sense to truly protect this valuable resource? As a National Park, we set this aside for preservation and for future generations to enjoy. In fact, we have designated literally hundreds of areas and millions of acres as National Parks and Wildlife Preserves throughout our country because of their uniqueness, special beauty or other particular characteristics. These areas we treasure and have designated them “for all to enjoy”.

In 1964, we again took land out of a ‘multiple-use’ designation by creating the ‘Wilderness Act’. Millions of acres were taken out of management and placed in wilderness categories all over America. Land designation where no management can occur. Fires cannot be fought, disease and tree killing insects cannot be controlled, over-crowded stands cannot be thinned, in fact people are now even being discouraged from entering, by ‘non-motorized restrictions’ and current ‘limitations of use’ via advanced permit reservation systems, necessitating year long waiting lists.

We have taken 245 million acres of our land base and set these aside for other values that we want to protect and preserve for future generations. However, we are actually doing nothing to protect or preserve these areas. We are simply restricting what we can or cannot do in them.

Now that we know the value of 998,000 acres of Olympic National Park.... about $1.5 + trillion dollars, how much is the rest of that 245 million acres worth?

Since we have taken 1/3 of our total forest land out of management, and placed them at serious risk of catastrophic fire destruction and disease, can we also risk loosing the remaining public forests (about 200 million acres), of Forest Service and BLM land?

Yet, this is exactly what is happening in our public forests today. No management to speak of. The public is being further restrained via road closures, timber management has been halted, and large tracts are being locked and gated, all under the guise of wildlife habitat. These lands are being restricted as if they were wilderness, without the benefit of an act of Congress.

And ironically, only through careful management will it be possible to not only protect these areas, but improve ‘at-risk’ forests, wildlife habitat, and water quality. And..., this will need to include timber harvesting in order to effectively manage & help pay for healthy forest restorations.