Copyright 1996 Reuters, Limited
The Reuter Business Report
March 1, 1996, Friday, BC cycle
LENGTH: 392 words
HEADLINE: Glickman backs increased timber harvest
BYLINE: By
Judith Berck
DATELINE: PORTLAND, Ore.
BODY: U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman Friday said the Clinton administration
remains committed to a
"sustainable timber supply" although it is working to repeal a 1995 law that cleared the way for logging
in some old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest.
Glickman, speaking to the
Portland City Club, said the administration is seeking to work with both
environmentalists and the timber industry to resolve the controversy
surrounding the so-called salvage logging rider, which was part of a bill
passed by Congress and signed into law last year by President Clinton.
While the law was intended to
allow the logging of dead and dying trees, it has opened up for logging some
old-growth tracts, angering environmentalists and upsetting the balance of
Clinton's compromise forest plan for the Pacific Northwest, which went into
effect last year.
Glickman called the plan a success, noting that a federal injunction that had
halted timber sales in the region for years has been lifted.
"A new timber sales program for the region was initiated, protecting more old
growth, watersheds and habitats for salmon," Glickman said.
He
said the U.S. Forest Service was on track for a target of allowing an increased
regional harvest this year of 1.1 billion board feet, identified in the plan as
"a sustainable level of timber supply," to be harvested in 1996.
Glickman reaffirmed the Administration's commitment to
"revitalize the
region," noting that more than $ 350 million had been distributed in the region to be
used for economic diversification, development and work for displaced timber
industry workers.
Glickman said Clinton has asked Congress to repeal the provisions of the
salvage rider that allow old-growth logging and to provide authority to offer
replacement timber
"and in extreme cases, buy-off authority."
He said he would be negotiating next week with Oregon Sens. Mark Hatfield and
Ron Wyden, U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Furse and others on both sides of the issue.
On Wednesday, Sens. Hatfield and Slade Gorton of Washington proposed
a compromise that would allow for replacement timber and contract buyouts. But
it would neither provide money for such buy-outs nor allow court challenges
under environmental laws.
The Hatfield-Gorton compromise also would extend the Sept. 30 deadline for
logging under the salvage rider.