Rep. Jim Leach on Ending Logging on National Forests
7/19/98
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Title: Rep. Jim Leach on Ending Logging on National Forests
Source: The Washington Post
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 7/19/98
Op-ed:
SACRIFICING OUR FORESTS MUST STOP
It makes economic and environmental good sense to end the multi-million
dollar subsidies paid to those who are logging on public land
by Rep. Jim Leach
"The only trouble with the movement for the preservation of our
forests," Theodore Roosevelt noted in 1908, "is that is has not gone
nearly far enough." That is still the problem today.
In the waning hours of the just-concluded session, Congress passed a
bill intended to set up a pilot "fuel break" project in certain national
forests in California. But is the bill landmark legislation because it
places modest limits on logging, or will its allowance of cutting on
more than 40,000 acres only continue the 300-year hemorrhaging of one of
our most precious resources.
Like the bison herds that sustained the Plains Indians, the sea of trees
that covered the eastern half and far west of America seemed to early
settlers to be an inexhaustible resource.
In 1891, with the effect of two centuries of profligate tree cutting
becoming apparent, Congress established the national forest system. But
a short six years later, it created the Federal timber sales program,
and logging in our new national forests began.
Today, with 95 percent of the country's original forests already logged,
most of the remaining 5 percent are subject to being cut, with logs
hauled from public land on access roads constructed at public expense.
Less than 4 percent of the country's wood products comes from public
lands, yet Federal subsidies for this logging are inexcusably large.
Last year alone, the subsidy was $791 million. And the government not
only subsidizes roads for logging companies, it also pays communities to
support schools and other services for the families of loggers.
But the program's real cost extends beyond this corporate welfare.
Continued logging in national forests worsens soil erosion, lake and
stream sedimentation, and air and water quality. Some jobs may be
created, but whether their number exceeds those in the fishing,
recreation and tourism industries that are jeopardized when machines
intrude on nature's habitat is open to question.
Indeed, according to the Forest Service, logging jobs represent less
than 3 percent of all jobs in our national forests.
If we are to be good stewards of public lands, we must protect what
remains of our national forests. One way to do this is to create
programs to ensure maximum use of recyclable materials.
In 1992, almost half of all American hardwood lumber production was used
to make pallets for shipping. And according to the industry, more than
half of these pallets are used just once and then discarded, ending up
in landfills. Subsidized wood products promote this type of waste.
Ending the logging subsidy makes good environmental sense, and should be
a high priority for a free-market economy. That is why Rep. Cynthia
McKinney, a Georgia Democrat, and I have introduced legislation to end
logging on public lands.
Our bill would provide for the retraining of displaced workers, economic
development assistance to affected lumbering communities, and research
into recycling and ecological restoration.
At first blush, some might think that ending logging on Federal lands is
environmental extremism. But in fact, it is common sense.
Ensuring the environmental future requires a global effort, and we
should do our part. The United States is quick to scold Third World
countries that destroy tropical forests, decrying the impact on global
warming and biodiversity.
If we are going to exhort other countries to preserve their forests, we
ought to act to save our own. Forest preservation is neither a regional
nor a partisan issue. The national forests belong to all Americans and
their proper management is everybody's business.
To learn more about the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act
(H.R. 2789) or to co-sponsor the bill, contact Amy Trotter at Rep.
Leach's office at 5-6576 or send an e-mail to
.