Proposed Timber Bill Draws Fire Amendment Calls For Harvesting 6 Billion Board Feet Of Salvage Timber

A proposal to harvest 6 billion board feet of burned federal timber over the next two years - much of it in the Inland Northwest - would drastically devalue private timberlands, a New England senator charged Thursday.

Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., called the GOP’s “Contract With America” and its “bumper-sticker legislation” dangerous and hypocritical.

On March 2, U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C., tacked a salvage timber amendment onto the House appropriations bill. Although it passed the House Appropriations Committee, the measure awaits approval of the full House.

It calls for logging enough wood to frame 400,000 typical homes and would decrease wildfire risks by thinning overstocked forests, Taylor suggests.

But on the same day the salvage measure was passed, the Appropriations Committee approved another bill that requires Congress to compensate citizens whose private land is devalued at least 20 percent by government regulation.

“One hour they say the federal treasury should pay for property that government devalues, and the next hour a committee approves a law devaluing private property,” Leahy said in a statement.

The Congressional Research Service says flooding the lumber market with that much federal timber would lower private timberland values by up to 15 percent.

A Potlatch Corp. spokesman said Leahy’s assertion, based on the research service, is false.

The U.S. Forest Service sold an average of 11 billion board feet of timber a year in the 1980s nationwide. This year, it will be less than 2.5 billion board feet, industry officials said.

“In the first place, you’re not talking about adding to the volume that’s been traditionally sold,” said Potlatch’s Mike Sullivan. “They’ve been selling zip the last three years. What you’re adding to is virtually zero.”

Environmentalists are outraged at Taylor’s salvage bill, noting he accepted $71,500 in contributions from the timber industry.

Taylor could not be reached for comment.

Conservationists also doubt claims that logging overstocked and dead stands will improve forest health.

“This is analogous to a doctor prescribing a lobotomy for a headache,” said Ned Daly of Taxpayer Assets Project.

Citizen watchdog groups in Washington, D.C., said Taylor’s bill would result in huge corporate profits while ripping off taxpayers. The timber would be sold at much less than its mill value.

“In a bill that cuts funding for education programs, subsidized home-heating programs and defense waste cleanup, Rep. Taylor made sure that subsidized timber would be sold to some of the industry giants at prices that don’t cover taxpayer costs,” said Janice Shields, an accountant with the Center for Study of Responsive Law on Capitol Hill.

But Coeur d’Alene-based timber spokesman Ken Kohli said 6 billion board feet of timber would generate $1 billion for the federal Treasury because of high market prices.

The salvage timber also would keep sawmills alive. More than 270 Northwest mills have closed since 1986, he said.

U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, said 67,000 wildfires in 1994 left millions of dollars of salvageable wood in the forests.

“That means an awful lot of homes and an awful lot of jobs,” she said. “Why are we wasting our resources?”