From: [Clinton HQ] at [Campaign92.Org] (The White House)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: CLINTON: Forest Background 7.1.93
Date: 2 Jul 1993 03:44:48 -0400
BACKGROUND
FORESTS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST AND NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
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.
What has been needed and what President Clinton provides
today is an innovative, comprehensive, and balanced blueprint
for forest management, economic development, and agency
coordination aimed at strengthening the long-term economic and
environmental health of the region. The President's plan provides
for a sustainable harvest based on scientifically-sound and
legally-responsible forest management, new job-creating
investments in the region's environment, innovative protections
for valuable old growth forests, and new economic assistance to
help workers, businesses and communities to provide long-term,
family- wage jobs and long-term economic development.
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.
THREATENED SPECIES
The law requires protections for the spotted owl, the
marbled murrelet, and certain species of fish. In the past,
legal action has centered on the spotted owl, the first species
to be listed as threatened.
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 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.
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 REPORTS
The scientific understanding of the 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.
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.
It is important to note that by law, logs from federal lands
cannot be exported and log exports from state-owned lands will be
prohibited by legislation President Clinton is signing today.
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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