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December 1, 1995 ARCATA - Strips of yellow tape are tied to thousand year old Douglas Fir trees nearly five feet in diameter which President Clinton is cutting down. The Clinton Administration estimates there are about 375 board feet of salable lumber in every thousand year old Douglas Fir. That's worth up to nearly $5,000, at today's prices. Logging these ancient trees creates a few thousand short-term jobs during this crucial election year for the Clinton administration.NATIONAL FOREST BEING SOLD FOR SALVAGE
by Howard Hobbs, Ph.D. Economics Editor
Last year the Democrat controled Congress attached a rider to a bill that would result in the reopening of lumber mills in Northern California and in the Pacific Northwest to save the endangered forests. However, the forests are healthy with some living trees that are a thousand years old.
In Roseburg Oregon, a local forest products mill started cutting those trees right away. When asked to stop the cutting, the logging firm cited it authority to cut any trees under the Timber Sales Contract under the rider to the salvage bill. The rider permits the logging of 650 million board feet of healthy federal timber, as "salvage".
The National Forest Service administers the Umpqua Forest. The Forest Service and local Oregon schools rely heavily opon Umpqua timber sale revenues for operational budgets. However, some of the Forest Service plant biologists and foresters have disclosed that road building and harvesting the Umpqua old-growth trees might trigger an ecoloogical disaster in the region that will make it worthless for future generations.
Nearly all logging mills and surrounding towns in the Northwest, have been forced to import timber for milling to keep the economy afloat a little while longer.
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