By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
OTTO — More than 50 people participated in a protest Saturday at a state forest in the town of Otto that is part of a proposed state logging plan in Zoar Valley to provide more habitat for birds by clear-cutting hundreds of acres of state forests.
Organized by the Zoar Valley Coalition, the demonstration on Wickham Road went past trees that had been marked with red paint by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the CT/NY Audubon as the protestors walked down the road chanting.
Activists tied handmade signs to a number of trees beside the road that bore red paint before presentations by several speakers that started about 1 p.m. Some read: Save Zoar, Save the Trees, Respect What’s Left and I’m Big, I’m Old and I’m Beautiful.
Nate Buckley, an arborist from Buffalo who started coming to the Zoar Valley area with his family as a child, said the state Department of Environmental Conservation plan to cut up to 100 acres of forest this winter abutting the Zoar Valley Unique Area where there are old growth trees more than 300 years old and logging is prohibited. Another 700 acres would be logged over the next 10 years under the plan, he said.
Buckley said the Zoar Valley Coalition has tried to learn more about the plan from the DEC over the past year by filing requests under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). The DEC has not complied, he said.
Buckley noted a large amount of the forest was deeded to the state in the 1960s by Herbert Darling with the understanding it be forever wild and open for public recreation. “We’ve got to keep the pressure on until we get the protection,” he said. “We want to make sure everyone knows about this. We are going to make a stand.”
Lynn Kenney, another organizer, said the Connecticut and New York Audubon societies “have convinced DEC that in order to save birds they should cut down these trees.” After clear-cutting a 94-acre site, felled trees that are not harvested for their timber value will be bulldozed into a 10-foot-high berm surrounding the area to keep deer out, she said. “They want to cut down all the trees and start from scratch.”
Kenney said logging the forest right up to the Unique Area will impact the water flow into the gorge where the real old growth trees are located and protected. “We’ve golt to make a stand.”
Seneca environmental activist Degaweno:da’s encouraged the demonstrators to spread the word of their concerns over the state’s plan to clear-cut the forest and eliminate the buffer of the Zoar Valley Unique Area.
Buckley, the Buffalo arborist, said the plan for the Zoar Valley forest is not for the birds. He said the cleared land will not be unlike other DEC forests in Western New York that have been harvested under clear-cut operations. “We need a buffer zone” right next to the old growth. The clear cutting will affect the wind and the soil.”Let;’s protect it so all of Zoar is old growth.”
Buckley said many of the trees scheduled to be cut along Wickham Road under the plan are between 100 and 120 years old. “It doesn’t just come back” he said of the forest.
Buckley urged others who were also concerned about logging in Zoar Valley to write to people involved in the decision. A list of people to contact with concerns is listed on the coalition’s website www.zoarvalley.org.
“We deserve to be heard,” Buckley said. “We’re not going to stop until they stop.”
In 2006, the DEC issued a preservation plan for Zoar Valley after overwhelming public support was expressed for Zoar Valley to be a protected wilderness,” said Terry Belke, another coalition organizer. “For the DEC to now reverse the plan for Zoar Valley to a logging plan is a grievous breach of the public trust.”
State DEC and Audubon officials plan to schedule a public meeting this fall to explain the logging plan. No date hjas been set.
To contact the coalition, email info@zoarvalley.org.
