U.S. Exaggerated Forest Regrowth, Report Says : Environment: The House study cites examples of ‘phantom forests’ in the Northwest where inflated timber inventories cannot support logging quotas.

The government has overestimated reforestation and growth rates at national forests in the Northwest, resulting in exaggerated logging quotas that cannot be sustained, a congressional report said Monday.

“The mismanagement of these forests has been devastating,” Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) said in releasing the study of 15 national forests in Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho and Montana.

“This report shows that, in spite of repeated assurances by the Forest Service, the forests we’ve cut down are not growing back,” said Miller, chairman of the House Interior Committee.

The study, prepared by committee staff workers, shows dozens of examples of the so-called “phantom forests” where logged areas have not regrown and timber inventories have been overstated, Miller said.

By exaggerating inventories and regeneration, the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management justify cutting more timber than can be sustained under federal environmental laws, he said.

“The Forest Service does not check whether new saplings are growing after they are three years old, they do not check forest inventories against actual on-the-ground surveys and they have not stopped cutting in forest areas that they know will not grow back,” Miller said.

The result, the report said, is that current forest regrowth in the Northwest is only 64% of the volume being cut.

Daniel Weiss, an aide to Miller, said the report substantiates NASA photographs released last week showing that the Northwest’s forests are in worse shape than the rain forests of Brazil.

“Through aerial photographs and people’s analysis of on-the-ground surveys, we can see that in some areas the Forest Service says are reforested there, in fact, are no trees growing there,” he said.

Spokesmen for the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management said they had not seen the report and had no immediate comment.

The Interior Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a proposal by Miller and Rep. Bruce F. Vento (D-Minn.) to ban logging across about 8 million acres of old-growth forests in Oregon, Washington and California.