Chenoweth Says Clinton Hinders Timber Sales Says President Told Agencies To Ignore New Environmental Rules

An emergency salvage logging program called for by congressional Republicans already is faltering, critics say.

The plan to protect national forests and stimulate Western economies by harvesting burned trees has drawn stunted interest from loggers and is costing taxpayers millions, said Bob Wolf, a retired deputy director of the Congressional Research Service.

Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, vice chairman of a new bipartisan task force on salvage logging, admits the salvage program has stalled. She blames the Clinton administration.

The president encouraged federal agencies to ignore the salvage law’s mandate to suspend environmental reviews, she said. She pointed to an August memo from the Clinton administration land management Cabinet members.

The memo said existing law “gives us the discretion to apply current environmental standards to the timber salvage program, and we will do so.”

That slows the process, costs more money and makes sales too complex to draw bidder interest, she said.

“If we learned anything from Watergate, it’s that no one is above the law, not even the president,” she said Saturday, before speaking to a women’s timber group here.

Agency officials last month told Congress they were abiding by the salvage law and still intend to put about 4.5 billion board feet of timber - enough for about 450,000 homes - on the market. The problem, they said, is people aren’t bidding because the demand isn’t there.

Chenoweth’s committee will hold hearings in October in Lewiston to gather information on just how the U.S. Forest Service is responding to the new law.

“This will be the acid test for the agency” to see if it should continue to be allowed to manage public lands, she said.

Wolf, who spent 12 years with the research service but continues to crunch numbers as a hobby, predicted in March the cost to taxpayers would reach $200 billion.

Recent sales on the Boise National Forest - some of the first under the new law - prove his predictions are on track, he said.

About 70 percent of recent salvage sales on the Boise have been bought, Wolf said. Sale prices total just under $30 million - about half what Congress and the U.S. Forest Service predicted in March. If it returns money to county coffers and replants trees as scheduled, the agency will be about $7 million in the hole.

Results of sales scheduled for North Idaho and Eastern Washington likely will be the same, he said.

An estimated 115 million board feet of salvage timber - enough to build more than 11,000 average homes - are supposed to be sold from the Idaho Panhandle National Forests as part of the new law.

Chenoweth said those sales will go as planned if the Clinton administration does its part.

Wolf said he doubts it.

“It’s not going to get any better,” he said Friday. “It’s the same math no matter where you go.”

, DataTimes