Report: Logging costs taxpayers $1.2 billion a year

According to the report, only 3.3 percent of America's total annual wood consumption comes from national forests

April 16, 1999
Web posted at: 11:15 AM EDT

The federal logging program costs taxpayers more than $1.2 billion a year, according to a report released Tuesday by the John Muir Project, an activist group affiliated with the Earth Island Institute.

The report was released in conjunction with the re-introduction of the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act by Representatives Cynthia McKinney, R-Ga., and Jim Leach, R-Iowa. If passed, the act would bring an end to logging on national forests and redirect logging subsidies into worker retraining, ecological restoration and taxpayer savings.

"It's time to protect our national forest from the destructive Federal Timber Sales Program by ending the logging once and for all," said Rene Voss, legislative director for the John Muir Project.

"The American people are getting tired of having their tax dollars pay for the destruction of public lands," said Chad Hanson, author of the report, noting that a recent poll shows that 69 percent of Americans oppose continuing to allow timber companies to log on national forests.

According to the report, only 3.3 percent of America's total annual wood consumption comes from national forests, suggesting that Americans do not need to log national forests for their timber supply.

As well, the report shows that the federal timber program is not good for jobs or local economies.

"If we ended the timber sales program on our national forests and redirected the enormous logging subsidies, we'd have more than $30,000 for each public lands timber worker for retraining or ecological restoration work, and we'd still have more than half a billion dollars left over for taxpayer savings annually," said Hanson.

The report, entitled, "Ending Timber Sales on National Forests: The Facts," was reviewed by the United States Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan federal agency which serves as the research branch of Congress.

The agency confirmed the John Muir Project's findings, stating that "$1.2 billion is a reasonable estimate of the net cash loss from the Forest Service's FY 1997 timber program to taxpayers."

Copyright 1999, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved