May 5, 2000

For Immediate Release
Contact: Jim Kleissler, (814) 223-4996

Forest Protection Group Criticizes Management Plan for Endangered Species

Local citizen group declares draft management plan for threatened and endangered species on the Allegheny National Forest as "highly inadequate." The draft management plan addressed 5 different federally listed threatened and endangered species known to exist on or near the Allegheny National Forest.

The management plan is being developed to address the needs of the endangered Indiana bat and Northern riffleshell and Clubshell mussels, and the threatened Bald eagle and Small whorled pogonia. Logging on the 513,000 acre Allegheny National Forest was stopped last year when two citizen groups, the Allegheny Defense Project and Heartwood, Inc., sued to protect the species. The draft plan was developed in response to a Biological Opinion issued by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service in June of 1999.

"The Forest Service outright refuses to implement Terms and Conditions declared mandatory by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the protection of two endangered freshwater mussels that live in the Allegheny River," says Shannon Hughes, a Pittsburgh Area Coordinator for the Allegheny Defense Project.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had asked that existing management plans be revised to incorporate stronger watershed protection provisions for the two endangered freshwater mussels. The draft management plan, however, excludes these stronger provisions arguing that the water quality is good and therefore the provisions are not needed.

"The Northern riffleshell mussel has only two known reproducing populations in the world. One of those populations lives in the Allegheny River adjacent to the Allegheny National Forest," explains Kirk Johnson, Forest Watch Coordinator for the Allegheny Defense Project. "If we lose this population we will most assuredly lose this species over time."

The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service agrees. In their June, 1999 Biological Opinion they found that if populations of the non-native zebra mussel were to find their way into the Allegheny River this species would likely be out competed for resources ­ possibly leading towards its extinction. The groups contend that the draft Management Plan leaves too much leeway in its guidelines for preventing zebra-mussels from populating the Allegheny River.

"Extinction is forever. We must do what we can to protect these species," says Jim Kleissler, Forest Watch Director for the Allegheny Defense Project. "The draft plan is highly inadequate in that it fails to incorporate the mandatory conditions of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service1s Biological Opinion into the current management plan. Important protections and survey work for the Indiana bat and Northern riffleshell mussel are either completely ignored or shelved into an unenforceable and illegal program that the Forest Service will probably never implement."

The Allegheny Defense Project contends that the Forest Service1s "Allegheny National Forest Conservation Program" violates environmental laws because it was prepared without an Environmental Impact Statement and involved no public input. The group objects to the Program because it fails to put important protections for threatened and endangered species into the existing Allegheny National Forest "Forest Plan". They contend that this violates the National Environmental Policy Act and National Forest Management Act.

"The Forest Service refuses to incorporate protection provisions into their Forest Plan because to do so would allow citizens to enforce those provisions when the Forest Service fails to implement them," says Shannon Hughes. "Unfortunately, the Forest Service seems more interested in clearcutting the Allegheny National Forest than they are in protecting the wildlife that lives there."

The Allegheny Defense Project outlined their claims in an extensive public comment letter sent to the Forest Service. The groups are concerned that logging on the national forest continues without adequate provisions to protect the Northern riffleshell mussel and other threatened and endangered species from harm.

The group also contends that the scope of the management plan arbitrarily excluded other species of concern that are on the Sensitive species list for the Allegheny National Forest. They claim that as many as 26 sensitive species could be affected including the sensitive and Pennsylvania endangered Yellow-bellied flycatcher, a neo-tropical songbird, the Northern water shrew, a small mammal, and the Green-faced clubtail, a rare dragonfly.

"Until the Forest Service develops a management plan that is adequate to the needs of threatened and endangered species all logging should stop," declared Kirk Johnson. "The danger is there that implementing logging and logging road construction work could unnecessarily degrade water quality and further endanger the Northern riffleshell mussel."

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