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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Clinton
Plan to Cut Logging Roads Finds Trouble
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/
4/5/97
OVERVIEW,
SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE
President
Clinton is trying to end the ludicrous practice of the US
government
subsidizing the building of logging roads.
It is tragic
that
the few remaining roadless areas continue to be targets for road
building,
frequently to stop designation of an area as a wilderness.
Many,
if not most, timber operations on public lands in the US lose
money
anyway. It would be good to see more
public forest lands being
managed
for ecosystem and biodiversity values, rather than exclusively
as a
timber plantation.
g.b.
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Clinton
plan to cut logging roads finds trouble with key Democrats
April
3, 1997
5.18
p.m. EST (2218 GMT)
Copyright
1997 Associated Press
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Opposition is mounting among influential Democrats
against
President Clinton's plan to make the timber industry pay to
build
its own logging roads in national forests.
Senate
Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said he shares the timber
industry's
concerns about the proposal. It could "adversely affect the
ability
of the Forest Service to manage the national forests," Daschle
said in
a letter.
Rep.
Norm Dicks of Washington, a senior Democrat on the House
Appropriations
Committee, has raised similar concerns about ending the
road
program that environmentalists claim is a giveaway to the timber
industry.
"I
worry this assault on the roads program is unwarranted and
misunderstood,"
Dicks told Forest Service chief Mike Dombeck at a
recent
budget hearing.
Clinton's
budget proposes saving taxpayers $55 million in 1998 by
eliminating
the Forest Service road credits.
Rep.
John Kasich, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Budget Committee,
earlier
targeted the logging roads program as an example of "corporate
welfare"
that Congress should eliminate.
Timber
companies are effectively reimbursed for building the roads
they
need to log national forests by getting credits that they can use
to bid
on future timber sales.
"Many
people question the logic in trading roads for national forest
trees,"
Dombeck acknowledged at a congressional hearing.
There
is already an extensive network of roads in the national forests
--
378,000 miles, or eight times the size of the federal Interstate
highway
system.
Dombeck
said the Forest Service intends to build only 300 miles of new
logging
roads in the coming fiscal year. The agency also has a $440
million
backlog in road maintenance needs.
Reps.
John Porter, R-Ill., and Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., have tried before
to kill
the logging road assistance and will make another stab at it
this
year.
Their
proposal initially passed the House 211-210 in June 1996, but on
reconsideration
the next day it failed on a 211-211 tie vote.
Daschle
made his comments in a March 14 letter to Tom Truxel of the
Black
Hills Forest Resource Association in Rapid City, S.D. Daschle
said he
doubted the Clinton administration had fully considered all
the
ramifications of its proposal.
Truxel
said the roads provide access for recreation and fire-fighting
as well
as logging.
The aid
has long been a bone of contention for environmentalists.
"Not
only are they allowed to destroy our public assets, they get an
enormous
public subsidy to do it. So we lose our property and we get
stuck
with a bill," said Tim Hermach, executive director of the Native
Forest
Council in Eugene, Ore.
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