TIMBER DEPENDENCY AND WILDERNESS SELECTION - THE UNITED-STATES FORESTSERVICE, CONGRESS, AND THE RARE-II DECISIONS

Historically, the preservation of wilderness in national parks and U.S . Forest Service wilderness areas has been much more extensive in west ern Washington than western Oregon despite the similarities of the two areas. The central purpose of this article is to assess whether the h igher level of economic dependency on timber in Oregon relative to Was hington has played a role in the preservation of wilderness. Recent co ngressional decisions on wilderness preservation have followed an exte nsive review of roadless areas by the U.S. Forest Service and recommen dations for allocation of such areas to wilderness. This process provi des an opportunity to investigate the determinants of wilderness selec tion and compare recommendations by the Forest Service with final wild erness preservation decisions by Congress. A central conclusion of thi s research is that Congress allocated fewer acres to wilderness in wes tern Oregon than western Washington because Oregon has a more highly t imber dependent economy. In addition, Congress was more sensitive than the Forest Service to timber dependency differences between the two s tates in its wilderness selection process as well as to the interests of wilderness advocates. The total amount of roadless area acreage all ocated to wilderness by Congress was greater than the amount recommend ed by the Forest Service.