On 9/4/96, Andrew Gray writes:
> These are great ideas for ecosystem restoration of dry-site,
> "fire-dependent" forest types. They run up against one big problem,
> however: how are you going to pay for these activities if there's no
> commercial return? Good luck raising taxes! (Presumably savings from less
> fire-fighting would help, at least a little... but the transfer may be
> somewhat difficult for politicians and managers to make.)
For starters, we can stop below-cost timber sales on the federal
forests. For example, in fiscal year 1994, 36 out of 100 national forests
sold timber below the cost of harvesting it, a GAO report revealed that
the federal treasury only received $300 million from $1.3 billion in
timber sales in '92,'93, and '94. More specifically, the two national
forests nearest my home here in Oregon, the Klamath and Siskiyou National
Forests lost $29.6 million and $17.2 million respectively between '92 and
'94. Why do we lose so much money on these timber sales? Road building
for logging trucks is one very large expense. Since 1960, the miles of
logging road constructed has more than doubled, to reach a staggering
325,000 miles of road in six northwest states; enough to circle the
planet 13 times! Ironically, the six state region has only 220,000 miles
of public streets and highways.
Another money-saver would be to stop the blatant theft of federal
timber. An April '96 report by the Agriculture Department's inspector
general's office revealed that the Forest Service often ignores these
thefts; failing to follow their own policies. For example, the audit
revealed that loggers had illegally cut timber on 26 of the 61 sales they
audited. Several months ago, allegations surfaced that the Forest
Service had even obstructed an investigation of federal timber theft by
Weyerhauser, as Weyerhauser employees were allegedly informed by FS
workers that they were the target of an ongoing investigation into timber
theft. The FS timber theft task force was abrubtly dismantled once the
allegations surfaced, seven ex-members of the task force have filed
whistle-blower complaints with the federal government. Two of these
agents allege that Weyerhauser illegally cut up to 32,000 healthy green
trees per month in a so-called salvage sale that limited the company to
clearing only dead and diseased trees.
How do we raise the money to properly manage our forests? Stop
corporate welfare!!!
Bret Diamond
Oregon, USA
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