Forest Service Calls For Help From Timber Industry Experts Ecologists See Conflict Of Interest In Effort To Speed Up Salvage Logging Sales

Short-staffed from down-sizing and budget cuts, the U.S. Forest Service is calling on the timber industry for help in an emergency effort to sell timber killed by forest fires and insect infestations.

Environmentalists cried foul, comparing it to letting the fox in the hen house, but the timber industry said some of the timber being offered under the so-called Salvage Rider can’t be logged under the restrictions set by the Forest Service.

David L. Hessel, timber director for the Forest Service in Washington, D.C., sent a letter Sept. 21 to regional foresters urging them to consult logging companies for technical advice when setting specifications for logging systems.

“This experience is especially critical in areas with steep slopes which require cable systems or helicopter logging,” Hessel wrote. “Our objective is to have well designed logging systems which do the job in the most cost-effective way.

“Of course, when it comes to the actual decision of what is needed to meet environmental needs, it is solely the Forest Service’s role to do that.”

Andy Stahl, director of the Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, said the Forest Service was turning over the national forests to the loggers.

“It’s also remarkable that this didn’t come under (Forest Service Chief) Jack Ward Thomas’ signature,” Stahl said. “You have to wonder who is running the Forest Service now. It appears to be timber management making that call.”

Rod Sallee, a timber management assistant at Forest Service headquarters in Washington, D.C., said the letter was prompted by the shortage of Forest Service personnel with technical expertise on designing logging systems and the timber industry’s offer to help.

Because dead timber deteriorates rapidly, it is important to get the salvage sales out as quickly as possible, he added.

Sallee said the Forest Service wanted to make sure that the salvage timber offered would actually sell, and not go begging because it couldn’t be harvested economically.

Last summer, Congress enacted a rider to a budget-cutting bill that suspended environmental laws through 1996 to speed the harvest of trees killed by forest fires and insect infestations.