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Willamette National Forest, Oregon Willamette National Forest is among several national forests that are in serious danger. A few years back, a special rule, called the Roadless Rule, was created to preserve fifty-eight million acres of wild forests. The Roadless Rule could have easily prevented great amounts of commercial logging in national forests and road building within 58.5 million acres of national forest land. However, after extensive work to pass the bill, the Bush administration continuously blocked the rule, as well as refusing to defend it in court. One major issue preventing Willamette National Forest from being properly protected is that the forest is under corporate influence. Millions of dollars have been donated to the presidential campaign, which then enables contributors to dictate what is done with millions of acres of national forest land. The government profits significantly from the timber industries, while the timber industries profit in turn from the exploitation of national forests. In addition, wilderness proposals are often used as a cover to increase commercial logging. As is the case for many other national forests, Willamette National Forest is extremely vulnerable to commercial timber sales and road building. Since 1970, Willamette has endured many devastating changes and, as a result, much controversy has arisen. The Oregon Natural Resources Council, an outspoken defender of the Willamette National forest, argues that the government and timber industries have manipulated and skirted environmental protection rules specifically made for non-controversial items in order to plan commercial logging sales. To this end, the government has successfully increased the public’s fear of wildfires in order to encourage logging of old growth.
To many people’s dismay, taxpayer dollars have also been inappropriately used to affect the health of national forests. In fact, over $6.6 billion have been given to the Forest Service and the Department of Interior for the National Fire Plan (NFP). However, there is evidence to suggest that this money, originally intended to protect and help natural resources, has been misused to promote commercial logging. In addition, funds intended for fire restoration have also been redirected to conduct commercial timber sales, which by no means meet the criteria for fire restoration. Moreover, NFP actually warns against commercial logging because the removal of large merchantable trees from forests actually increases the risk of fire.
Selected Bibliography Garnett, Ley. “Loopholes Allow Timber Sales in National Forests.” Oregon Public
Broadcasting, 3 November 2003. Weblink.
Maben, Scott. “Forest Wars.” The Register-Guard, 6 October 2002. Weblink.
Naficy, Cameron. “Exposing the Lies of the Bush/Rey Forest Service.” Native Forest
Network, 2003. Weblink.
Willamette National Forest, Oregon Pictures in the Gallery 
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