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Forests and Government Forest Service Indictment: A Mountain of Evidence
One hundred years ago, John Muir took up his pen to awaken Americans to the threat to their public forests from "thieves who are wealthy and steal timber by wholesale", as he described the logging industry in The Atlantic Monthly. President Grover Cleveland had recently established protection for 21 million acres of public forests, which the lumber barons were seeking to roll back by appealing to their friends in Congress, where, Muir said," a sizable chunk of gold, carefully concealed will outtalk and outfight all the nation on a subject like forestry." President Cleveland's 13 new forest reserves led to the designation of our National Forests on June 4, 1897. But the same legislation that granted them National Forest status also contained the seeds of corruption for the original vision of "forest reserves" enacted by Congress six years earlier. That corruption threatens our forests to this day, as our government continues to promote the idea that taxpayer-subsidized, large-scale commercial logging can coexist with healthy wildlife habitat and other non-consumptive forest uses. That corruption led to the passage in 1995 of what many call the worst public lands law in history, the "salvage rider". A new anti-environmental Congress, deep in the pockets of the timber industry, attached a legislative rider to an emergency funding bill that suspended all environmental laws related to "salvage" logging, and allowed the indiscriminate clearcutting of healthy, green forests under the guise of "salvage" and "forest health". Although the "salvage rider" was presented as the solution to an emergency situation of accumulated dead wood (or salvage) that could increase the danger of wildfires, most of the contracts sold under the rider allow purchasers up to two years to actually log the area. Under the "salvage rider", citizens no longer had any say in the forest management process or the courts. When we looked to the Forest Service for moderation of the voracious timber industry, there was none to be found. The Forest Service, entrusted by law with the stewardship of forest resources, seemed as eager as the timber barons to "get the cut out" while our environmental laws were suspended. For many Americans, this was the last straw. After decades of repeatedly demonstrating a lack of accountability to the U.S. taxpayers and the environment, the Forest Service sacrificed its last vestiges of public trust at the altar of this rider. The Forest Service ranks have long been dominated by professionals trained to harvest trees for timber, and they have done so zealously since the 1950s. During the post-war building boom, the logging industry discovered the public forests, as their own lands suffered from overcutting and abuse. Since then, the classic iron triangle of special interests, government bureaucrats, and members of Congress in industry's pocket have conspired to rip off the public forests through a binge of roadbuilding and logging unrivaled by anything going on in any other developing (or developed) nation. Because the Forest Service fails to protect the full range of forest values in the National Forests under its management, both the ecological integrity of our forests and the well-being of federal taxpayers are being sacrificed. The American taxpayer has been paying for irresponsible Forest Service management schemes for decades, through subsidized roadbuilding, off-budget slush funds that support excessive logging, and below-cost timber sales that cost the government more money to administer than it collects from the timber companies for the timber. The White House Council of Economic Advisors said in their annual report to Congress that the Forest Service spent $234 million more than it collected in timber receipts in 1995. According to the report, "Generally, the U.S. Forest Service subsidizes timber extraction from public lands by collecting less in timber sale revenues than it spends on timber program costs." An analysis of the Forest Services own figures by The Wilderness Society concludes that the agency lost $298 million on timber sales in 1995. Out of the 109 forests examined, 95 failed to return as much revenue as logging cost. According to the Government Accounting Office, the timber program lost nearly $1 billion from 1992 to 1994. A number of powerful economic incentives have been built into the Forest Services logging program that financially reward the agency for selling timber. Ten percent of gross Forest Service receipts automatically return to the agency for more road construction, despite the fact that the road system in our forests is already eight times the size of the entire interstate highway system. Twenty-five percent of receipts are distributed to the local counties where the timber was harvested "in lieu of taxes", essentially bribing local communities to support maximum logging levels. A nearly unlimited portion of remaining timber receipts can be retained by the agency for "timber sale area betterment" (under authority of the Knutson-Vandenberg Act of 1930 and expanded in 1976), thus providing a powerful tool for local managers to enhance their budget by selling timber. Recent research by Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics(FSEEE) reveals that over $90 million annually one-third to one-half of all money earmarked for restoration and mitigation of timber lands is being "illegally skimmed off" the Knutson-Vandenberg fund (K-V fund) to pay for Forest Service administrative practices. "Not only does this practice divert money away from where it is critically needed protecting our streams and forests but it also provides a perverse incentive for agency decision-makers to liquidate natural resources on public lands in order to pay their own salaries," FSEEE says. The verdict is in: The current management system under the U.S. Forest Service must be overhauled to protect the environment and the American taxpayer. There are several steps that should be taken immediately to make the agency accountable. Our lawmakers must prohibit new roadbuilding in the National Forests by ending all taxpayer subsidies for new roads and eliminating the purchaser roads credit program which allows the Forest Service to give away free trees to the timber industry if they agree to construct their own roads. According to Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck, the agency faces a $440 million road maintenance backlog. It just doesn't make sense to subsidize timber corporations with taxpayer dollars to build new roads when we cant even maintain the existing system. Prohibit logging and roadbuilding on unstable and potentially unstable land. Recent landslides, the destruction of salmon fisheries and expensive cleanup activities continue to demonstrate the hidden costs to public safety, the taxpayers, and the environment of logging in unsuitable areas. Reform or abolish all off-budget slush funds. The various slush funds that waste taxpayer money and encourage abusive logging practices must be eliminated. End money-losing timber sales. The Forest Service timber program should operate like a responsible business. Many of the destructive timber sales in the National Forests would never have occurred if the taxpayers had not paid for them. John Muir had it right. This forest battle is part of the eternal conflict between right and wrong, he wrote. The sooner it is stirred up and debated before the people the better, for thus the light will be let into it. Jim Jontz represented Indiana's 5th district in the U.S. Congress for six years, where he championed ancient forest protection legislation. He is currently the director of the Western Ancient Forest Campaign. More on forests and government | Report Contents Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
