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- SAVE AMERICA'S FORESTS'
4 Library Court, SE Washington, DC 20003 202·544-9219
Executive Summary
H.R. 1969-The Forest Biodiversity and Clearcutting Prohibition Act
What are the problems?
1. Clearcutting was illegal on Federal lands until 1976. Now it is the primary method of logging on all Federal lands where logging is pursued.
2. Clearcutting destroys watersheds, air quality, and wildlife habitat-plus destroys recreation value, and natural amenities values for communities.
3. Subsidized clearcutting on Federal lands creates waste of timber, causing recycled products to be uncompetitive with virgin products, contributing to our overflowing garbage landfills
4. Timber industry funded programs at our universities have created a "timber first" cadre of public lands managers who move freely between industry and government, and who are philosophically opposed to letting nature exist in an unmanaged form anywhere on Earth.
5. Industry funded sham "grassroots" organizations are lobbying Congress for greater logging on public lands.
Why does the timber industry push Congress to mandate clearcutting on public lands?
Many timber companies are already using selection logging (the removal of selected individual trees while maintaining an intact forest canopy) on their own lands because it costs less and provides more timber on a given site. But, by pushing Congress to subsidize the added expenses of clearcutting (road building, hand replanting, pesticide application), timber companies are able to extract timber at a fraction of the true cost. subsidized clearcutting allows them to use heavy machinery which eliminates labor costs. In fact, over 80% of the timber sales on federal lands money for the taxpayers, even though the timber is sold on the free market. This lost money equals big profits for timber companies.
What does B.R. 1969 do?
1. Bans clearcutting and "even age" logging on ALL federal lands: Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish & Wildlife Refuges (yes, they are clearcutting in wildlife refuges), and Military Bases (some of the finest remaining native forests). Allows selection logging on all federal lands that do not already enjoy a higher level of protection, such as National Parks, Wilderness Areas, National Monuments. Selection logging has been shown to produce more timber and more jobs than clearcut-ting, even in Douglas Fir forests.
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