Two Feather Circle.To Native Americans, the turkey is the symbol of the give-away, or sacrifice for the benefit of the whole. Certainly the twice cutover forests of the East have sacrificed again and again and now the Forest Service wants to continue cutting another time. Much of the eastern forests are in great shape and are the sights of timber interests across the country.

        USFS PLANS LARGEST TIMBER SALE IN THE EASTERN U.S. - Citizen Groups Speak Out in Opposition to the East Side Timber Sale. Three years ago, a Federal Court in Pittsburgh threw out the Forest Service's 5,000 acre "Mortality II" logging plan calling it "arbitrary and capricious."  The Forest Service recently re-released their plan which now calls for 8,666 acres of logging in the Allegheny National Forest. The East Side Timber Sale (formerly known as "Mortality II") calls for 66 million board feet of logging and includes over 3,000 acres of clearcuts, 3,493 acres of herbicide use, and close to 125 miles of road construction work on Pennsylvania's only national forest - the Allegheny.

       As with the Mortality II Timber Sale, citizen groups have rallied in opposition to the giant timber cutting plan.  Among the group's concerns is proposed logging that could affect an area of old growth forest that makes up the Tionesta Research Natural Area, a National Natural Landmark described by the Forest Service as "one of the most valuable old-growth remnants in the eastern U.S."  The groups also claim that logging will fragment the habitat of endangered species while hampering forest-based recreation opportunities. The East Side Timber Sale, groups say, is a symptom of a larger problem on the Allegheny National Forest.  The Forest Service, they say, manages the forest almost exclusively for clearcut logging at the tax-payers expense. The East Side Timber Sale is the largest timber sale in the east.  The Forest Service plans to cut enough trees to fill more than 20,000 log truck loads of publicly owned trees,

For more information contact, Jim Kleissler, Allegheny Defense Project (814) 223-4996