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Forests and Water Healthy Forests Mean Water, Wildlife and Work The far-sighted founders of our National Forest System knew that without healthy forests there would one day be no water and that without the fresh water our forests provide, there would ultimately be no wildlife. The health of all of our rivers, and the lives of most species, depend upon the biological integrity of our forest ecosystems. Water is the lifeblood of our forests, and the forests in turn use water to support a multitude of living things, including humans. Today, the very heart of these forest ecosystems lies within the National Forest System. In fact, securing favorable conditions of water flows was one of the original purposes of the whole National Forest program. Americas fishing industry is entirely dependent upon the health of our aquatic ecosystems, one of this nations greatest biological and economic treasures. Fishing in the U.S., in all its commercial and recreational forms, is a $111 billion-per-year industry, as well as a major source of both enjoyment and food for tens of millions of people. Our National Forests contain 2 million acres of ponds and lakes, 16,500 miles of coast and shoreline, and 200,000 miles of streams and rivers that support substantial commercial and subsistence fisheries. In 1992, Americans spent about 50 million angler days fishing on National Forest waters, and those anglers spent $2 billion. The Sport Fishing Institute estimates that sport fishing in the National Forests generates support for almost 60,000 jobs nationwide. The National Forest Reserves were originally established with the hope that they would maintain and preserve this biological heritage by protecting forests as the source of abundant clean water and wildlife. Private timber companies once opposed using public lands for timber production because federally subsidized timber competed unfairly with their own products. It was only after private timberlands had been thoroughly overcut that commercial timber harvesting began to be the dominant use of our public lands. Now it is taken for granted as a taxpayer-subsidized cash cow. Unfortunately, in the middle of this century the Forest Service was taken hostage by a politically dominant, corporate timber industry. Using raw political power, the industry pushed congressionally mandated minimum harvests regardless of the biological consequences to fish and wildlife. Only in recent years, after considerable public outcry, has forest management by congressional mandate come to an end. Unfortunately, many in the timber industry would like to return to the bad old days of legislated harvest levels. An entrenched timber industry lobby still exists for the sole purpose of convincing Congress to cram obsolete and self-serving timber harvest policies down the throats of an unwilling public (witness the recent salvage rider debacle) even at the cost of extinction for species such as Pacific salmon and bull trout. But no lobby, no matter how strong, is ever as powerful as the force of an organized and outraged citizenry. Slowly but steadily, the American people are demanding that the National Forest System return to its highest purpose protecting the watersheds that protect us. The next step is to do away with the massive, environmentally damaging timber industry subsidies reluctantly maintained by U.S. taxpayers. We now know that environmental damage of any sort carries an economic price. Yet the environmental damage caused by timber sales and road building is never figured into the program costs. If it were, many common timber harvest practices could no longer be justified. Streamside riparian areas in particular are often far more economically valuable for their recreational and fish production benefits than for timber harvest. Converting healthy riparian forests to timber sales converts a public asset into a taxpayer-subsidized private profit. Sedimentation caused by excessive roadbuilding and clearcutting is a serious threat to fisheries, recreation and downstream public water supplies. More than half of the water supply for millions of Americans in 16 Western states flows through our National Forests. The public is increasingly aware that water resources must be protected for fisheries and recreation. Our government is slowly realizing that these assets must be held in trust for the benefit of future generations, not exploited for the personal gain of a few timber corporations at the expense of other resource-dependent industries such as the commercial fishing industry and ultimately at the expense of the public. We are all part of a great period of change as society shifts slowly (and painfully) from an economy of short-term utilization to an economy of sustainable, long-term stewardship. Properly protected and sustainably managed, both public and private lands can provide long-term benefits for every species, including our own. We are really all part of the problem. We have all participated in (and benefited from) an unsustainable economic system. Now we must all learn to become part of the solution. There is no economic wealth that does not originate as a gift from the natural environment. One of the greatest of those natural gifts is our National Forest System. It is our moral obligation to pass that legacy on intact to future generations. Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA) is the largest organization of commercial fishermen on the West Coast. Glen Spain is PCFFA's Northwest Regional Director. 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