Five plans of action are being offered up by the U.S. Forest Service on how it will manage the Mark Twain National Forest in this state. The Forest comprises about one-and-a-half million acres in southern and central Missouri. The five plans range from stopping all logging to allowing an even greater harvest of forest products. Ronnie Raum with the Service says the agency prefers an alternative somewhere in the middle called Alternative Three. He says it would allow for some logging while doing a better job of managing native plants. Raum admits the amount of timber loggers could go down by about two percent under this proposal. A public comment period starts next week. A final plan should come out sometime in September.
