220 



litigate the Forest Plan Revision, if necessary. NFMA 

 requirements that can be ignored, at a Forest implementation 

 level, can't be dodged at Forest planning levels. The only 

 real way for the timber industry to get what it wants, is to 

 convince Washington to gut public land management laws. 



III. Recreation Issues 



Forest Recreational Opportunity 



In 1989, the only year I have national statistics for, the 

 Black Hills National Forest was second in the Nation for acres 

 logged and second for acres logged per acre of Forest. 



According the existing Forest Plan there is guesstimated to 

 be one linear mile of road for every 150-200 acres of Forest. 

 According the existing Plan, 33% of the area of the Forest 

 will be logged in the first ten years of the plan and 10-15% 

 thinned. This means in any given year about 3.3% of the Forest 

 is in a timber sale and 33% has ten year old timber scars. 



The existing wilderness on the Black Hills only "ties up" an 

 area, one forth of the size of what the timber companies log 

 each year. The wilderness occupies less space than the Forest 

 thins each year. How many other multiple uses can use an active 

 timber sale? How many handicapped people recreate in a timber 

 sale? 



Oust about every acre of the Forest has a grazing allotment. 

 Cow patties, cattle and fencing abound, especially in the few 

 riparian areas remaining in public ownership. Most riparian 

 areas are in private ownership and those remaining publicly 

 owned riparian and wet areas are trashed by cattle. Riparian 

 areas are priority recreational sites. How many persons enjoy 

 camping in a meadow covered by cows or littered with fresh 

 cow pies? 



The Sierra Club did an inventory of wild areas before proposing 

 the wilderness proposal. Most of the Hills is thoroughly roaded. 

 Of the 14-16 areas identified as either meeting or best 

 approximating wilderness qualifications. All of these areas, 

 that were available for timber entry, had a timber sale scheduled 

 within 5 years. Today many of these areas are already lost. 

 Only .76% of the Forest is in Wilderness. People who enjoy 

 back country go out to their former, favorite, non protected, 

 wild area to find it degraded by a recent sale. 



Given the aggressive timber program, this Forest must make some 

 kind of plan for setting aside some backcountry areas. These 

 areas much be protected from logging, mining, reading and have 

 range management improved, without adding more fences. The 

 whereabouts of these areas must be made known to the public. 

 Wilderness is one vehicle to accomplish this, although other 



