From: [Clinton HQ] at [Campaign92.Org] (Clinton/Gore '92)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: CLINTON: Background on Forest Conference 3.30.93
Date: 30 Mar 1993 23:59:36 -0500
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
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For Immediate Release March 30, 1993
THE FOREST CONFERENCE
Background
The issue is how best to manage and protect
federal forest lands in the Pacific northwest and
northern California. Years of short-sighted and
contradictory policy-making by previous
Administrations have fueled a region-wide battle
that has polarized communities, totally blocked
any rational policy making, and left decision-
making in the courts.
The Forest Conference represents an urgent
and critically needed step toward a comprehensive
and balanced long-term policy that recognizes the
importance of the forests and timber to the
economy and jobs in the region as well as the
importance of America's old growth forests that,
once they are gone, cannot be replaced. In
addition, the Conference represents an opportunity
to demonstrate that economic health does not need
to be sacrificed to -- but in fact depends on --
sound environmental policies.
THE PROBLEM:
The debate centers on how all public forest
lands should be managed to recognize the need to
protect and preserve old growth forests, fish,
wildlife, and water as well as the needs of the
workers, businesses, and communities dependent on
timber sales. Old growth forests are those at least
200 years old or older. Most remaining old growth
forests are on federal lands. Nearly 90 percent of
the region's old growth forests already have been
logged. An estimated 8 to 9 million acres of old
growth forest remain today.
Throughout the Bush Administration, key
agencies responsible for managing federal forest
lands (Forest Service in the Department of
Agriculture and the Bureau of Land Management in
the Department of Interior) simultaneously pursued
not only contradictory policies, but policies the
courts have ruled were in violation of federal laws
(principally the Endangered Species Act [ESA], the
National Environmental Policy Act [NEPA], and the
National Forest Management Act [NFMA]). The debate
was polarized, and gridlock ensued. As a result,
court injunctions have stopped most Forest Service
and some BLM timber sales, with serious economic
consequences for the region.
FEDERAL FOREST LANDS:
Federal land managers historically, and
through the Bush Administration, emphasized
commodity uses of federal lands, e.g. logging,
mining, and grazing, over conservation of natural
ecosystems. Easily accessible old growth forests
on federal and private lands were extensively
logged long ago, creating increasingly heavy
reliance on the remaining old growth forests on
federal lands. These old growth forests are in
demand because of the size and quality of the
trees to the timber industry. Second growth
forests on most private lands are still 15 to 20
years away from harvestable age.
The old growth forests support a broad range
of plants and animals and the health of these
forests impacts further on the area's rivers and
streams -- meaning that fish also are affected by
the state of these forests. For example, the
region's salmon industry, which employs an
estimated 60,000 people, has already been affected
by reduced fish harvests due, in part, to habitat
degradation of rivers and streams in logged areas.
Destroying the old growth forests has a domino
effect on entire communities --reducing jobs in
tourism and fishing, recreational opportunities,
hunting and fishing, and endangering water
supplies. Old growth forests also contain a number
of known and unknown species which offer promise,
such as the Pacific yew tree, whose bark yields
taxol, a possible cure for breast cancer.
NORTHERN SPOTTED OWL
The northern spotted owl range is located in
the forests west of the Cascade Mountains in
Washington, Oregon, and northern California.
Within that range, the owls preferred habitat is
old growth forests.
The Department of Agriculture's Forest Service
manages 23 million acres in spotted owl range. The
Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) manages 2.4 million acres in
spotted owl range in Oregon and northern
California.
The debate has focused on the environmental
and economic benefits and costs of protecting the
northern spotted owl. From 1984, when the Forest
Service adopted guidelines for managing the owl's
habitat on national forests in Washington and
Oregon through today, this debate has been marked
by contradictory and sloppy policy-making that has
forced the issue into the courts.
The debate intensified over the past five
years, particularly since the Fish and Wildlife
Service listed the northern spotted owl as
threatened in July 1990. The courts during this
time repeatedly concluded that the
Bush Administration was acting in violation of
existing laws and issued injunctions stopping
major timber sales. The Bush Administration, for
example, agreed to list the owl as threatened but
refused to act to protect the areas where the owl
lives. Later, unhappy with the findings of the
Interagency Scientific Committee, which was
charged with examining the issues, the Bush
Administration convened its own task force that
produced a 1-1/2 page press release asking
Congress to pass legislation enabling certain
Forest Service and BLM timber sales to proceed and
be insulated from forest management laws.
Using the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and
"viable populations of species" standard of the
National Forest Management Act, environmental
groups have challenged Forest Service and BLM
plans to sell timber in spotted owl habitat. The
ESA prohibits agencies from taking actions which
will "jeopardize the continued existence" of an
endangered or threatened species, a determination
which the Fish and Wildlife Service makes.
National Forest Management Act regulations call
for maintenance of viable populations of native
vertebrates well distributed within the area.
A series of injunctions by the Seattle
District Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals have stalled almost all timber sales in
spotted owl habitat in Washington, Oregon, and
northern California since 1989.
Almost routinely, the courts said the Bush
Administration abused its discretion, acted
arbitrarily and capriciously and violated the law.
For example, in May 1991, Judge William Dwyer in
Seattle District Court ruled that, "...a
deliberate and systematic refusal by the Forest
Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service to
comply with the laws protecting wildlife
...[demonstrates] a remarkable series of
violations of the environmental laws."
SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS TEAM REPORT
The scientific understanding of old growth
forest ecosystem has evolved significantly in the
past five years. Scientists have conducted three
key independent assessments:
1) The Interagency Scientific Committee
(ISC) in 1990
2) The Scientific Panel on Late
Successional Forest Ecosystems in 1991
3) The Scientific Analysis Team (SAT) of
the Forest Service in 1993
All three have confirmed the need to set
aside larger areas of habitat to protect species
which depend on old growth forest ecosystems,
such as northern spotted owls, marbled murrelets,
and several species of salmon.
The most recent scientific assessment on this
issue from the Scientific Analysis Team was
released Friday, March 19. This report was
prepared by a team of 24 government scientists in
response to a court order. The conclusion of these
scientists is that significant acreage (no
specific numbers) of public forest land will need
to be protected if old growth species are to
survive.
The SAT report responds to specific questions
raised by Judge Dwyer. It is a scientific study
prepared to answer a court order, not a statement
of policy. The team considered not just
protection of the spotted owl, but protection of
the entire old growth ecosystem as a way to
prevent a piecemeal and crisis-driven approach to
land management. Its conclusions identify some 482
additional species that rely on old growth
forests.
ECONOMIC ISSUES
The forests of the Pacific Northwest and
northern California have provided the foundation
for the region's economy for the past century.
Though historically important as a source of
employment in the northwest, the timber industry
has been declining in importance as other sectors
of the economy have grown. In 1970, timber-related
jobs accounted for about 10 percent of total
regional employment. By 1989, timber employment
was at about 140,000 jobs or about 4 percent of
total regional employment. However, some rural
areas depend almost totally on forest industries.
In the northwest region, economic growth in
the past two decades has diversified a regional
economy that was once much more heavily dependent
on manufacturing and timber. While many rural
counties are vulnerable, overall economic
conditions and trends in the northwest show
substantial strength. After many years of
somewhat sluggish economic growth, the Pacific
Northwest economy has shown strong growth since
1986. The rate of employment growth in Oregon and
Washington exceeded the U.S. average in every year
since 1986.
About 43 percent of the timber land in the
affected region is owned by the federal
government, with the remainder in state or private
hands. Federal timber sales provide local
communities receipts of between $200 and $500
million dollars annually.
During the 1980s, the northern spotted owl
region (public and private lands) accounted for
more than 30 percent of the lumber produced
in the United States. Because about one-third of
recent timber harvests in the owl region occur on
federal lands, about 10 percent of domestic timber
supply potentially is affected by spotted owl
protection.
Increased harvest levels have failed to
increase jobs proportionately. Increased
mechanization in harvesting, transporting, and
milling has lowered the labor required for
producing lumber. During the 1980s, for example,
the number of jobs in the lumber and wood products
sectors declined from 10 jobs per million board
feet of harvest to below 8 jobs per million board
feet. From 1981 to 1989, while harvest levels
increased by 44 percent in Oregon and Washington,
there was no increase in employment in forest
products.
Mill closings follow a similar trend. In
1968, Oregon had 300 sawmills; by 1988 the state
had 165 mills. In Washington, the number of mills
fell from 182 in 1978 to 118 mills in 1988, while
the total number of wood processing establishments
(including veneer and plywood, pulp, shake and
shingle plants and other operations) fell from 764
in 1978 to 351 in 1988.
These trends preceded the old-growth
controversy. While the spotted owl often is blamed
for weak employment, the long term projections
indicate steady declines in employment for any
given level of timber harvest.
Export-related issues are expected to be
raised at the Forest Conference. It is important
to note that by law, logs from federal lands
cannot be exported and log exports from state-
owned lands are highly restricted. However,
substantial volumes of timber cut from private
lands in the northwest are exported to Japan,
Korea, and China with minimal domestic processing.
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