GOP pushing for more logging in national forests

[RiverStone]

Source: Seattle Times 10/2/11

By Kyung M. Song
Seattle Times Washington bureau

WASHINGTON — A century-old federal program that compensates counties straddling huge tracts of nontaxable national forests has expired, and House Republicans are using its reauthorization to push for opening the land to more logging and mining.

The GOP wants to shift the forest-payment program closer to its 1908 origin, when the federal government directly split revenue from timber, mining and other activities to pay for local schools and roads in Washington state and around the country.

Environmentalists and the U.S. Forest Service oppose the changes, including proposals to re-link payments to the amount of timber or minerals extracted and to set first-ever minimum timber-harvest targets for each national forest.

Currently, logging in national forests produces about 3 billion board feet of timber annually, a 75 percent drop from its peak 20 years ago.

Beleaguered local officials, already grappling with budget shortfalls, are pressing for quick reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act to avert an interruption in payments. At the same time, they want Congress to revamp the payments, which they consider inadequate and undependable.

Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2016387...

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What else would you expect from the flat earthers?

[sakabatou]

1. Whatever happened to "tending the Garden?"

[cliffordu]

2. Mother. Fuckers.

[No Elephants]

3. Of course they are. Koch makes a lot of paper products.

[Zookeeper]

4. I think we are going to hear much more of this, as the Rethugs...

use our national debt as an excuse to exploit or sell our national and natural resources. Watching a hearing on C-Span, a couple of months ago, I heard Pete Sessions casually comment on how "we need to look at selling some of our resources."

Communities that need jobs are sitting ducks for timber and mining corporations. Wilderness in northern MN is under attack right now by a multi-national mining firm.

We all need to stay alert for this sort of thing. Thanks for posting that article.

[FarLeftFist]

5. When every tree is gone and every river poisoned, they will see that you cannot eat money.

[SpiralHawk]

6. "Screw the children and grandchildren. Sneer." - Repiblicons (R)

"We want it all now for us. We want more more more more more more for me me me me me me me. Bwaaa ha ha ha ha. Sneer."

- Repiglicons (R)

[Kolesar]

7. The big timber companies don't want this

They have "timber plantations" and only cut trees on their own land. This is a gimmick that might help small start up companies, but nobody else.

[WranglerRog]

8. I live in the middle of the Mark Twain National Forest

in southern Missouri. Although the timber industry had been depressed for a few years it appears to be going full blown again. Some in the industry practice sustainable forestry but not nearly enough. Around here the forestry service will clear cut a section of forest and leave the rest. Supposedly trees are replanted but I've yet to see this happen. What we end up with is bare mountain tops and erosion. Many of the creeks are filling with gravel. Times past the counties would just scoop the creek gravel up for road work. Now that's been prohibited and they buy crushed gravel. So as I said the creeks fill up compounding the problem. The other major problem is that after they take the saw logs they just leave the tops. After a year or two this becomes what I quaintly call kindling. We've had several small brush fires burning 4 to 10 acres at a time but eventually we'll have a major forest fire. So much for "Healthy Forest Initiative".

[salin]

9. Of course they want to do this - it benefits the 1%!

That appears to be their only purpose, along with demagoguing to stir up the teaparty support while they don't actually do anything for the teaparty (most of whom are 99%ers.)

[hue]

10. This is part of the ALEC agenda...

Kochs own Georgia Pacific & Dixie paper goods: BOYCOTT DIXIE cups, plates, napkins, any Dixie or Georgia Pacific product!

[Zookeeper]

15. Good to know. Thanks. n/t

[Cool Logic]

11. The fedgov owns 30% of all US land...

With the economy being the way it is, it might not be such a bad idea to put a few of those 650 million acres into productivity.

[Kingofalldems]

12. Reads like GOP/Rush talking points.

[Cool Logic]

13. Reads like Stingy Bureaucrat talking points...

[tabasco]

14. National forests comprise 8.5% of all U.S. lands

This is about national forests, not all U.S. land.

U.S. lands are productive, dittohead.

Peddle your horseshit somewhere else.

[saras]

16. They are. They are producing much more of economic value than stripping them of trees would.

[tonekat]

17. More lumber to build more houses to foreclose on?

Or more that fewer people can afford now?