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10 Good Reasons
to End Logging on Public Lands
- Public Lands Belong to the People:
Nearly 200 million acres of public forestland belong to all Americans and to
future generations. Only 4% of America's original forest cover remains, almost
entirely on public land. Our natural heritage should not be liquidated for the
profit of private corporations.
- Public Support:
Americans are strongly in favor of environmental protection. A nationwide poll
conducted in 1998 concluded that 69% of Americans now oppose allowing timber
companies to log our National Forests.
- Native Forest and Habitat
Protection:
Native forests play an important role in
creating soils and minimizing soil erosion, lessening flood and drought
potential and maintaining clean air. Public forests contain over half of the
nation's remaining wildlife habitat.
- Direct Subsidies and Indirect
Costs:
The federal logging program operates at an
increasing loss each year. In 1997, the US taxpayers lost $1.2 billion logging
their forests (source: John Muir Project, verified by Congressional Research
Services). Taxpayers, not industry, pay for administrating the timber sale
program, constructing logging roads, replanting trees, and restoring degraded
habitat. The costs of deforestation to biodiversity, clean water and air,
fisheries, tourism, and our spiritual well-being are incalculable.
- Timber Supply:
Production of timber volume from the National Forests accounts for less than 5%
of the total volume of timber produced in the United States (US Forest Service).
72% of the timberland in the US, and most of the highly productive land, is in
private ownership.
- Waste:
Half of the trees cut in this country are wasted through inefficient utilization
and lack of recycling. Eliminating this waste would save more than 3 times the
amount cut on public forests. Despite the existence of alternative fibers for
pulp, such as hemp and kenaf, about half of the trees cut each year are turned
into paper products. 50% of the landfill waste in America is wood and paper
fiber.
- Automation and Exports:
Between 1979 and 1988, while logging increased, more than 26,000 timber jobs
disappeared due to automation. In the Southeast, new chip mills being built can
consume 200 square miles of forests in 3-5 years, while employing as few as 4-12
workers per shift. In the Northwest, nearly half of all timber cut is exported
raw or minimally processed. Every million board feet of lumber shipped overseas
takes 7 direct jobs and 14 more indirect jobs with it.
- Jobs:
The billions of dollars currently spent subsidizing the logging of public lands
could instead employ tens of thousands of people to restore forests rather than
destroy them. In 1996, the Forest Service issued a report predicting that by the
year 2000, recreation, hunting and fishing on National Forests will contribute
38 times more to the national economy than the National Forest logging program
and 31 times as many jobs.
- Timber Subsidies:
The US government's dumping of cheap, subsidized public timber artificially
lowers wood prices and devalues private timberland. Ending logging of public
forests will increase the value of private forests. Woodlot owners would receive
a higher price for their timber, providing an incentive for sustainable
management.
- Lawlessness:
In 1991, Federal Judge William Dwyer accused the federal land agencies of a
"systematic and deliberate refusal" to comply with environmental laws. If the
Forest Service cannot obey existing laws, why should we expect them to comply
with "better logging" laws? The laws must be changed to stop the logging!
Local Contact:
Utah Environmental Congress
1817 S. Main Street; # 10
Salt Lake City, UT 84115
(801) 466-4055
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