Timber operations on the Allegheny National Forest don’t just hit industry and the federal bottom line.

It hits municipalities and school districts that contain federal land as they receive payments from the sale of timber on the forest.

And a nonprofit aimed at pushing for sustainable forestry raised some alarms to municipal officials at Wednesday’s Council of Governments meeting.

Amanda Hetrick, president of the Allegheny Forest Alliance and superintendent of the Forest Area School District, argued that “most of the forest really is designed to be timbered so it is sustainable” and said the health of that resource is threatened “if we don’t keep the age class balance of the forest where it needs to be (and) care for that in the proper way.”

He explained the alliance was created in the 1990s when revenues saw a significant decline and they took action to “what needed to be done to protect our interests as communities (and) continue with a rural way of life.”

While the group acknowledges the Forest Service is allowing timber sales close to the allowable sale quality and that the market for timber is down, they also outlined concerns about the Biden administration that could impact timber harvesting.

“We are concerned there is going to be a change in focus,” Hetrick said. “Under the previous administration (a) directive to the Forest Service was to focus on getting things lined up in the way they should be” on timber and regeneration issues.

“We are concerned that that is not going to be as high a priority,” she added. “(We are) concerned about wind and solar … and how that will impact us.”

Executive Director Julia McCray said environmental groups are “trying to obstruct the timber harvest” and, at this time, are “working quietly kind of in the background.”

She echoed concerns about the Biden administration, as well, saying there are “new threats rising.”

“(We are) expecting several challenges to come out of their viewpoints,” including the elimination of drilling on public lands, wilderness issues, wind and solar and changes to NEPA, which lays out the environmental review process for projects on federal land.

“(We) also expect them to push for the purchase and establishment of additional public lands across the country,” McCray said.

She emphasized that the goal of the AFA is “community sustainability through multi-use management” and said they are focusing on youth and public education as well as legislative advocacy.

COG BYLAWS SET

The Council of Governments also approved a set of bylaws for the creation of a formal structure to the organization.

“There is no delegation of power here,” the COG’s consultant, Alan Kugler, emphasized. “(This is a) voluntary organization totally.”

Kugler said the bylaws would be distributed to each municipality with discussions about next steps to take place at the September meeting.

“We’re making progress,” County Planner Dan Glotz said.