Forest News

Two Bogus Bills
US - On November 14, despite heavy opposition from US environmentalists, President Clinton signed the Interior Appropriations bill. Clinton had promised to veto the bill, which contains numerous riders that provide taxpayer subsidies for timber corporations whose prosperity rests on the clearcutting of public forests. But there is some good news from the forest front: On November 24, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) withdrew her name as co-sponsor of the Quincy Library Group bill (S 1028). Boxer and co-sponsor Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) had hailed S 1028 as the best compromise solution to California's logs-vs.-forest debate but environmentalists derided the bill as "the worst forest legislation of the century" in newspaper ads. Critics pointed out that S 1028 would double the logging and triple the watershed disturbance in affected forests. Boxer explained that she was "particularly disturbed" by the bill's failure "to protect the most sensitive old-growth areas" of the Sierra mountain range. The pressure now shifts to Sen. Feinstein.

GOP Greenhouse Plan: "Cut the Trees!"
US - Congressional anti-environmentalists came up with a spectacularly disingenuous bill (HR 151) designed to "send a message" to the White House in advance of the Kyoto summit on climate change. Instead of requiring polluting industries to cut CO₂ emissions, Rep. Helen Chenoweth (R-ID), chair of the House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, and Don Young (R-AK) proposed that the country's forests be "managed" to reduce greenhouse gases. Behind the greenwash rhetoric about the need to reduce the Greenhouse Effect, the bill actually proposes accelerating the clearcutting of existing forests and replanting the clearcuts with "new, vibrant forests" that would absorb atmospheric CO₂.

Giant Sequoias in Jeopardy
US - The world's largest trees, the Sierran Redwoods in California's Sequoia National Park, are threatened. A Forest Service/timber industry plan to "enhance and protect" would log 1,000-foot-wide swatches through ancient groves of trees that John Muir called the "Kings of the Woods." Rep. George Miller (D-CA) has introduced a bill (HR 2077) to create a Sequoia preserve that would protect more than half of Earth's remaining sequoia grove. For more information, contact the Sequoia Task Force, PO Box 3543, Visalia, CA 93278.

Maine Voters Protect Forests
US - The seven giant paper companies that control half of Maine's forests are responsible for 78 percent of the state's clearcutting and 98 percent of the herbicide spraying. Last November, these timber interests ran a $9 million campaign to convince voters to approve a so-called "Forest Compact" that would permit continued clearcutting. The corporate compact was defeated by a margin of 53 to 47 percent, thanks to a powerful alliance of environmentalists and small woodland owners. In Maine, Big Timber almost always gets what it wants. Jonathan Carter, executive director of the Forest Ecology Network [PO Box 2218, Augusta, ME 04338, (207) 623-7140, www.powerlink.net/fen] called the vote "truly an historic victory."

Support Grows for Forest Protection Act
US - Ten years ago, when Tim Hermach, executive director of the Native Forest Council [1455 Brisarcliff Lane, Eugene, OR 97404, (503)688-2600, (541) 689-9835 Which #?] drafted a bill to end all logging in federal forests, the plan was dismissed as too radical. But in the final months of 1997, Hermach's vision was suddenly much closer to reality when Reps. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and Jim Leach (R-IA) introduced the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act (NFPRA, HR 2789).

"It's time to stop doling out millions of dollars in corporate welfare to underwrite the timber industry," McKinney stated. According to McKinney, the Forest Service spent $791 million in 1996 to subsidize private logging on public lands - sales made millions for private industry but failed to earn any revenue for the US Treasury. McKinney noted that polls clearly showed overwhelming public support for banning commercial logging in national forests.

Rep. Leach, the Republican head of the House Banking Committee, observed ironically that the Forest Service was "the only property owner that I know of that pays private parties to deplete its own resources."

HR 2789 has garnered the support of the Sierra Club, Earth Island's John Muir Project and 12 members of Congress. The John Muir Project encourages readers to ask their representatives to support HR 2789.