Chenoweth Heads Forest Panel Timber Industry Cheers; Environmentalists Jeer

In a move denounced by environmentalists and cheered by timber interests, Idaho Republican Helen Chenoweth takes control Wednesday of a new House panel trying to set the nation’s forests on a different course.

“She’s never seen a stump she didn’t like,” said Melanie Griffin, a spokeswoman for the Sierra Club’s national office. “I think we can expect an all-out attack on our forests this year.”

Doug Crandall, of the American Forests and Paper Association, said he thinks Chenoweth has learned to temper her pro-industry stance.

“I think she understands to get things done we have to achieve bipartisan support,” he said.

Chenoweth, 59, a supporter of increased logging on federal lands, will lead the new House Forests and Forests Health subcommittee.

She will set its agenda, choosing speakers and the legislation it will consider. It is charged with overseeing the direction of the nation’s timber supply.

With Chenoweth heading one forest subcommittee and Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, leading the Senate’s counterpart, Idaho suddenly has a great deal of sway over federal forestry policy.

“This really gives that delegation some power on forest issues,” said Lloyd Jones, chief of staff for the House Resources Committee.

Chenoweth, a second-term congresswoman, said her long-term goal is to educate people about the “distressed” condition of Northwest forests, which she believes are dangerously overburdened with disease, insects and fire hazards from small trees, downed limbs and branches.

She and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt see similar problems, but have very different solutions.

Chenoweth supports “multiple-use sustained yield” management, which calls for harvesting portions of forests for their health.

Babbitt proposes burning up to 3 million acres of government-owned timberland to improve forest health.

Chenoweth said controlled burns should be set only during a wet fall season, to promote native pines and to clear the way for browsing plants for deer and moose.

“I hope to employ good science rather than bad theology,” she said. “Simply letting nature take its course with no human management destroys wildlife habitat, watersheds, and adds pollutants in streams and rivers.”

Babbitt spokesman Mike Gauldin said Chenoweth is oversimplifying the secretary’s proposal, which calls for prescribed fires set in carefully chosen areas to remove undergrowth.

“You don’t simply wait until lightning strikes and let it burn,” Gauldin said.

Both sides agree forest fires have raged the past two summers with too much fuel on the ground.

“We have built up a natural situation, and nature’s response is to blow torch it,” Gauldin said.

Chenoweth’s hard work and interest in forest issues earned her the job, said House resources staff member Jones. She did not have seniority, but the more experienced committee members already had chairmanships.

Democratic sources close to the committee said Chenoweth got the assignment only after she was rejected for the top post of the Native American and Insular Affairs subcommittee.

“I was really surprised that I’d be considered for a chairmanship of a committee I had not served on,” she said of the Native American subcommittee.

Tensions between Chenoweth and tribal leaders worried GOP leaders, Democratic sources said.

“It’s something I want to improve,” Chenoweth said of her relations with Native Americans.

GOP leaders disbanded the Native American subcommittee this winter, giving those issues to the full Resources Committee.

Chenoweth’s appointment gives her a chance to work on an issue close to her heart.

She said she will listen to all sides of the heated forest debate.

“I will not be involved in the conflict industry,” she said. “I intend to do more listening than talking.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Chenoweth agenda In her new subcommittee chairmanship role, Rep. Helen Chenoweth will push for her own legislative agenda, which includes: A bill to extend the legal rights of people hurt financially by the Endangered Species Act. The bill has garnered substantial House support, including approval from GOP leaders. The forest subcommittee will hold a hearing on it this month. A bill requiring Senate confirmation of chief of the Forest Service. Two studies: a General Accounting Office audit of the Forest Service to compare with a White House study on timber sales; and a ranking of the nation’s 10 worst-managed and 10 best-managed forests.