House Votes For Continued Salvage Logging Turns Back Proposal That Would Have Blocked Funding Of Program On 211-209 Vote

Fearful of fire threats in Western national forests, the House voted Thursday to continue a controversial salvage logging program despite objections from environmentalists who say it endangers fish and wildlife.

On a 211-209 vote, the House turned back a proposal that would have blocked funding of the logging of salvage timber under a provision approved by Congress last year without regard to normal environmental safeguards.

The logging provision is part of a $12 billion Interior spending bill later approved by the House 242-174.

Defenders of the salvage logging said it is necessary to remove dead and dying trees from forests facing catastrophic fire threats.

“Environmental extremists would rather see the forest burn to the ground than manage it wisely,” declared Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif.

But Rep. Elizabeth Furse, D-Ore., one of the sponsors of the defeated amendment, called the salvage logging “a war on our woods” and said it “harms fish and wildlife populations and the economically critical fishing and tourism industries they support.”

Congress approved the logging provision last summer and President Clinton signed it as part of a comprehensive spending bill that included disaster relief for victims of flooding in California and the bombing in Oklahoma City.

“I’ve watched this sale-by-sale, tree-by-tree. I’m here to tell you we made a mistake and we ought to change it,” said Rep. Pat Williams, D-Mont.

“They are cutting some of the wildest lands left in this nation.”

Congress last year allocated about $200 million for logging dead and dying trees in national forests, as well as some groves of old-growth in Oregon and Washington that had been sold but never released for harvest due to emerging environmental concerns.

Furse’s proposal would have ended all federal funding as of Sept. 30.

Environmentalists have dubbed it “logging without laws” because timber companies can circumvent many environmental restrictions.

“We are not logging without laws,” countered Rep. Jim Bunn, R-Ore. “We are logging before the logs rot.”

In other action, the House reversed itself and rejected an amendment that would have terminated a $50 million budget to build logging roads in federal forests.

The road amendment, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Kennedy, D-Mass., was approved 211-210 Wednesday night, but when opponents demanded a recount Thursday, the vote came at 211-211, not enough for approval under House rules.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., who did not vote on Wednesday, cast the deciding vote in the second tally.