Use Of Forest Service Scientist In Ad Criticized

Some environmentalists are angry about a timber industry television advertisement that uses footage of a Forest Service scientist to defend the controversial practice of salvage logging.

They say the ad may be illegal, and they want it halted, but the Forest Service said Thursday the agency has no plans to ask that the ads be killed.

The ad was produced by the Montana Wood Products Association.

Salvage logging is the focus of an intense debate because of a new law that bans environmental groups from appealing salvage sales. A bill now in Congress seeks to repeal the law.

The ad shows Boise (Idaho) National Forest hydrologist John L. Thornton, in uniform, defending salvage logging.

“We’ve been monitoring the effects of salvage logging,” he says. “And our studies show that careful salvage logging can actually improve watersheds.”

That footage is part of a public service announcement made in conjunction with the Idaho Forest Products Commission, a non-partisan, educational state agency in Idaho. The Boise National Forest approved those ads before they ran, and Boise spokesman Frank Carroll said Thornton’s statements are a matter of scientific record on the Boise forest.