Both Sides Take Work Home From Forest Congress Some Participants Say Progress Made On Solving Logging, Environment Issues

A Montana timberman says a privately organized forest congress brought moderates on both sides of the timber battle closer together.

For Cary Hegreberg, much of the five-day meeting in Washington was a battleground of traditional timber and environmental foes.

But the Montana Wood Products Association official saw more.

“I think there are a lot of people in the middle who moved closer together here,” Hegreberg said. “Ultimately, that will force the rest of us together. But it will take awhile.”

The congress ended Saturday with a vision statement echoing much of existing forest law. Additions include an emphasis on producing sustainable levels of wood products from the national forests, while protecting forest-dependent communities nearby.

The congress was designed to bring some agreement on forest issues from a cross-section of people, but nothing that emerged promises immediate changes in policy.

As the gathering ended, President Clinton, on a trip to the Northwest, told Washington state officials that he advocates repealing provisions of a salvage logging law that reopened old-growth timber to logging west of the Cascade Range.

Spokesman Mike McCurry said the president wants legislative authority to buy out timber contracts in sensitive areas or, in some cases, to provide replacement timber to companies.

The privately organized congress, which drew 1,400 participants, took people who rarely see eye-to-eye and forced them to talk.

“It feels to me like a peace process, it really does,” said Jon Roush, head of the Wilderness Society. “I’m going to work hard to make it mean as much as possible.”

At about 140 tables, people ranging from timber executives to the head of the U.S. Forest Service, and from environmentalists to “wise-use” activists, sat together day in and day out, talking about forest issues.

In the principles produced by the congress, delegates refused to endorse a repeal of the salvage logging rider. But they did support a principle that people have the right to seek legal review of land management decisions, something stymied under the rider.

The idea is for delegates to take the work home with them and try anew to solve one of the nation’s most perplexing debates about natural resources.

A threatened walkout by environmentalists did not occur.

“I think there would have been a bigger show had the conference taken a turn into being an industry consortium - but it didn’t,” said Paul Ketcham of the Portland Audubon Society. “There were some major breakthroughs at our table.”