gregf -
I think you're making too broad a conclusion of the eastern forests based upon your experience with the Allegheny National Forest, which for your description, seems like a disaster. While I've not been to that one, I've been to many other Federal and state-administered forest in the east. On the whole, I don't see much difference in terms of management. There are regional differences in how wilderness regs are administered, however, which seem to reflect traditional regional uses for land. For example - one would never see cattle grazing in designated wilderness areas in the east, but is not uncommon in the west. The same is true of lumbering - while not common in my observation on either coast, I have seen lumbering occuring in designated wilderness in the Gifford Pinchot NF of Washington state.
The most stringent application of wilderness "ethics" in my experience is not in a nationally-managed forest. Rather, top honors in that category IMHO goes to Baxter SP in Maine.
