Valuable opportunity missed

A front-page story on June 16 lauded the departure from the Port of Olympia of 5.5 million board feet of American logs heading for China. This was a boon to Washington loggers, Weyerhaeuser and to the shipping company. I believe that America should not be acting like a colonial country by shipping our raw materials overseas where someone else will benefit from the “added value” operations.

Our sawmills and pulp mills are shut down, resulting in high unemployment in our timber communities. We should be performing the “value added” operations here and keeping the employment and capital here at home. If foreign countries want to purchase logs from us, they should pay an export tax that recovers most of the “value added” capital for preservation and maintenance of our forest resources and communities.

We have closed our mines, mills, foundries and smelters until we are dependent on others for our strategic metals. We can thank the environmental movement for this situation. Good stewardship of our environment is to be valued, but the imposition of unreasonable restrictions by the “good-hearted,” the overzealous and the unknowing has left the nation without jobs and has weakened our national strength.

Carl M. Canfield

Davenport, Wash.