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Plan for Forests Threatens Study, Researcher Says

Posted on: Tuesday, 28 March 2006, 21:00 CST

By Jacob Luecke, Columbia Daily Tribune, Mo.

Mar. 27--A research tower in rural Boone County could someday clarify how forests affect global warming. But a plan to sell national forest land around the tower could alter its readings and cloud conclusions, researchers say.

The 106-foot-tall instrument measures how carbon dioxide and water vapor are exchanged in a several-kilometer radius around its base. It is one of 100 similar towers across North America that researchers hope will provide a continental picture of how different natural environments interact with the atmosphere.

The experiment could help scientists better understand global warming, said Stephen Pallardy, professor of forestry at the University of Missouri-Columbia and the lead local researcher on the tower project.

"It's a very important measurement that might be influenced by these land sales," Pallardy said.

The tower sits on the university's 2,280-acre Basket Wildlife Research Area inside the Cedar Creek District of the Mark Twain National Forest east of Ashland.

Three national forest parcels near the tower would be sold under a Bush administration plan to sell as many as 300,000 acres of national forest nationwide. The plan proposes selling 21,566 acres in Missouri, including 239 acres in Boone and Callaway counties.

If the three parcels are transferred to private hands, the new landowners could cut down trees, build houses or otherwise change the landscape in a way that could affect the tower's readings, Pallardy said.

Because scientists rely on constants to draw conclusions, altering the land in the study area would complicate the research.

"Changes to that land use would throw an unknown into the interpretation of our data," Pallardy said.

The tower cost $140,000 when it was built in 2004. With related equipment and research expenses, the experiment has cost about $1.4 million, Pallardy said. The federal Department of Energy is funding the project here.

The president's forest sale plan would raise about $800 million for the Secure Rural Schools Act, which funds schools and road projects in rural counties. Twenty-nine Missouri counties, including Boone and Callaway, would get money from the act.

The land sale has generated a strong negative response locally. Two weeks ago, more than 150 people protested the sale at a public meeting in Ashland.

State and local elected officials from Boone County have sent letters and pushed resolutions asking Congress to deny the sale.

A Forest Service public comment period on the sale ends on Thursday. Instructions on how to comment are available at the forest service Web site, www.fs.fed.us.

The forest service has received about 1,000 comments about the proposal so far. That number of comments is about average for a public input period, Forest Service spokesman Dan Jiron said.

More than two weeks ago, Missouri Sen. Jim Talent and Rep. Kenny Hulshof, both Republicans, asked the Forest Service to extend the comment period by 60 days.

Jiron said Forest Service officials haven't decided whether to let people have more time to comment.

"We are still considering that request," he said. "We should have an announcement out very soon."

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Copyright (c) 2006, Columbia Daily Tribune, Mo.

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Source: Columbia Daily Tribune

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