Why does Congress keep trying to cut down our national forests in order to “save” them?
U.S. Rep. Bob Smith’s bill, House Bill 2515, is the latest in a series of proposals premised on the pseudo-scientific hypothesis that there is a forest health “crisis” in the national forests and that increased logging is the cure. This rationale was the basis for the infamous “Salvage Rider” or “logging without laws,” which suspended environmental laws and allowed timber companies to clear-cut healthy old-growth forests under the guise of restoring forest health, as was the case when two “salvage” sales in Montana included clear-cuts in excess of 200 acres. Now they are at it again.
House Bill 2515, the Forest Recovery and Protection Act of 1997, seems to have the same intent as Salvage Rider–to increase logging with forest health as a convenient excuse. Smith’s bill would mandate a five-year national program requiring the U.S. Forest Service to designate loosely defined “recovery areas,” within which loosely defined “recovery projects” (e.g., salvage logging) would be conducted. There would be no limits on size, number or duration of these destruction zones–entire forests could be designated as “recovery areas.”
Logging is the problem, not the cure! The Smith chainsaw surgery bill is just another excuse to abuse the national forests at the expense of taxpayers, fish and wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities.
