The 'Christmas Rush' to Cut West's Scrap Trees
12/27/96
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Behind 'Christmas Rush' To Cut West's Scrap Trees
Daniel Sneider, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Friday December 27, 1996 Edition
Copyright 1996 The Christian Science Publishing Society.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Facing a year-end deadline, the US Forest Service is
rushing to push through what environmentalists have labeled a "Christmas
rush" of timber sales on federal lands.
Despite claims by White House officials that they have moved to block any
surge in cutting, more than 50 sales were put on the auction block this
month.
The last-minute sales are an attempt to take advantage of an exception in
the law governing "salvage logging" - the harvesting of dead and dying
trees. The special rule, which runs out at the end of the year, allows
companies to harvest salvage timber if it aids the protection of "forest
health."
Timber companies say they are doing just that, but environmentalists say
they are abusing the exemption to cut live trees as well.
A coalition of more than 100 environmental and other citizens'
organizations have called on President Clinton to halt the timber sales,
many of which will take place in old-growth forests in the West. They
dismiss claims by administration officials that they lack the authority to
put the brakes on these contracts.
"Clearly the administration would like everyone to believe all the problems
are over - and they're not," says Jim Jontz, a former congressman from
Indiana and executive director of the Western Ancient Forest Campaign. The
organization has publicized a list of some 52 auctions in December, most of
them in national forests in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho,
Colorado, and Montana.
From its first to its last days, the salvage-logging bill has lived up to
its reputation as one of the nation's most controversial environmental
issues. Since its passage in the spring of 1995, the law has prompted
protests on logging roads and vast lobbying efforts by conservationists for
whom it became the symbol of the Republican-led Congress's attempts to roll
back decades of environmental protection.
Salvage logging has also been a source of tension between environmental
groups and the Clinton administration after the president signed the
spending bill carrying the salvage-logging law. For many activists, that
decision epitomizes the gap between its pro-environment rhetoric and its
actions.
"With regard to forests, the administration has talked one line and done
something else," says Mr. Jontz.
With the rider set to expire on Dec. 31, the administration is eager to
repair the political damage. Fearful of a rush of sales in the rider's
final days, James Lyons, the undersecretary of Agriculture, instructed the
Forest Service on Dec. 13 to cease all further advertising of salvage
sales.
"We didn't want to put more [sales] in the hopper," Mr. Lyons says from
Washington in an interview. "Like everybody, we're anxious to get this
behind us."
THE move was also prompted by an interagency study of salvage-logging
activities released on Dec. 6. The review found that there was not
sufficient oversight of the sales by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land
Management, and other federal agencies. The law broadened the definition of
salvage to include removal of trees considered to be under "imminent
threat" of fire or insect attack. In practice, the report said, this meant
everything from dead trees to live trees.
"In some instances, green trees were harvested that should not have been,"
says Mr. Lyons. The report also notes that the Forest Service has an
incentive to carry out the salvage sales to generate revenue for its
operations.
The order to halt advertising sales was intended to "recover some
credibility with the public," Lyons says. The order also provides for
a transition to the closing of the law.
But Lyons was unable to supply any figures on how many potential sales were
blocked by this move. Conservation organizations have found evidence of
only two sales in Oregon and Washington affected by the order - and both of
them are going ahead because of exemptions. In California, where some 150
million board feet of timber was scheduled for sale in December, only seven
small sales, or a total of 2.8 million board feet, were affected by the
suspension.
"They tried to make a big environmental play out of an announcement of what
is merely an administrative matter," says an aide to Idaho Sen. Larry Craig
(R), a supporter of the logging industry. "It didn't amount to anything."
Even the end of the salvage-logging law is not going to end battles over
the management of national forests. Senator Craig introduced a 100-page
bill earlier this month aimed at reforming the entire federal forest
system.
But conservationists see the bill as an effort to extend the rollback of
environmental protection that was temporarily enforced by the salvage-
logging rider. According to an analysis of the legislation prepared by the
Wilderness Society, Craig's reforms would weaken compliance with the
Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act,
legislation that requires a complex evaluation of the impact of any
activity, including logging.
Conservationists dismiss the bill as a "timber industry wish list" and
predict it will face opposition in Congress. For his part, Lyons expresses
concerns about provisions to reduce the public's right to challenge timber
sales. But he says officials will "wait and see until we have chance to
digest the bill."