Salvage Measure Remains House Keeps Timber Proposal In Budget Bill For Time Being

The House gave tentative approval Wednesday to a controversial proposal to exempt salvage logging on national forests from environmental laws.

Lawmakers voted 275-150 to keep the measure in a comprehensive budget bill, rejecting arguments by several Democrats that it would harm fish and wildlife and cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

A final vote on the overall budget bill was not expected until today, but the salvage-logging amendment was expected to survive.

Backers say the exemption is necessary to reduce the threat of catastrophic fires by allowing speedy harvest of dead, dying and diseased timber. They say it also would create jobs at local saw mills and bring the government more than $35 million in new timber receipts.

“We need the lumber. We need the chips for our pulp and paper mills,” said Washington Rep. Norm Dicks, one of 66 Democrats who voted with majority Republicans to keep the provision in the bill.

Opponents say the exemptions from environmental laws are so broad that many live trees also would be cut, further damaging forests that were over-harvested during the past three decades.

“This salvage amendment will savage our forests,” said Rep. Sidney Yates, D-Ill., who called it a “timber lobbyist’s dream.”

“It literally suspends every law governing management of the public forests, including those that protect fish, wildlife, water quality and recreation, and the jobs that depend on such critically important forest resources,” Yates said.

The House voted down his proposal to remove the language from the bill.