A recent letter regarding the old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest shocked and saddened me. President Clinton has promised a timber summit within the first 100 days of his new administration. Should the timber industry carry the day, America risks losing the great majority of what little (5 percent) remains of the great ancient forests that once blanketed the lower 48 states.
Yes, the timber industry is losing jobs-but it is also cutting more trees. How so? Both better technology and the export of raw wood to the Far East mean fewer jobs. It is futile to cash in ancient ecosystems in a desperate bid to stop the inevitable restructuring of this industry.
It offends my sensibilities as a taxpayer that the Forest Service loses around $400 million per year to subsidize destruction of my heritage. By constructing roads and giving money to counties where timber is cut, the Forest Service feeds an addiction to old-growth wood. Our money is better spent in softening the shock of an immediate transition to complete protection of our national forests.
It is not the “environmental extremist” but the concerned taxpaying citizen who should be outraged at our government’s wasteful and short-sighted management of the land we hold in common.
