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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

White House Accused Of Sitting On Report

Scott Sonner Associated Press

Critics on both sides of the salvage-logging debate accused the Clinton administration Wednesday of postponing release of a report critical of the practice until after the election.

Administration officials deny the allegation.

While the cover of the report is dated Oct. 8, they said the interagency report was not printed until late November. Earlier versions prepared in October were not complete, they said.

The Agriculture Department drew attention to the discrepancy in a background briefing paper that addressed a number of questions, such as “What is a timber salvage timber sale?” and “Are salvage sales necessary for forest health?”

The last question on the sheet is: “Why is the report dated Oct. 8, 1996, and you are only now releasing it?”

The USDA’s answer: “The October 8 date was incorrectly put on the report by the printer. The final report was sent to the printer on November 14 and returned to the Department of Commerce on November 27.”

Neither environmentalists nor timber-industry lobbyists were buying that.

“This is typical of this administration, having something done and then sitting on it until they felt it is politically expedient to release it,” said Chris West, vice president of the Northwest Forestry Association in Portland.

“There were two competing interests for Clinton related to the election - organized labor and the greens,” or environmentalists, he said. “They didn’t want to upset either one of those constituencies.”

Ron Mitchell, executive director of the Idaho Sporting Congress in Boise, said he worked with some government officials reviewing the salvage sales and that they completed much of their work late this summer.

“The administration already was under criticism for the program. It could have been viewed as a concern about media if Clinton’s own Forest Service was going to be portrayed as in fact out of control,” he said.

Joe Blum, a fisheries biologist at the National Marine Fisheries Service who participated in the review, said the USDA backgrounder was accurate. He said the NMFS’ parent arency, the Commerce Department, was in charge of the printing.

“The team had a nearly final draft dated Oct. 8, but that was resubmitted for further interagency review,” Blum said. “It went to the printer on the 14th of November. I got the boxes (of reports) here on the 27th and others got them on the 27th and 28th. That is the truth.”

Deputy Agriculture Secretary James Lyons said some of the material was completed in September and has been used since then to make improvements in some salvage sales.

He too rejected the allegations of politically motivated delay.

“I don’t think there is any value in postponing a report we think is a good report,” Lyons said Wednesday. “It points to what worked well. It points to inadequacies in the process and has recommendations for resolving those.”