Check out "Conversations on the Forest Part 2: Forest Economics"
FAQ on timber exports coming soon!
The export of raw and pseudoprocessed logs from Oregon's forests is enormously destructive, both economically and environmentally. Oregon's export legacy is long, but our research has uncovered some disturbing recent trends. For details, see the homepage for our most recent op ed – "We Aren't Logging Our Way to Prosperity".
Despite industry rhetoric about the spotted owl, timber exports are a bigger reason for the loss of jobs in Oregon's timber sector. For a more in-depth discussion, read:
Want to create timber jobs? Stop the export of raw logs. June 8, 2011. The Register-Guard
Learn about a lost opportunity under the Clinton Administration, one that President Obama could seize, under federal 1979 Export Administration Act (EAA):
Solution to timber supply problem is a pen stroke away. May 9, 1994. The Register-Guard.
Click below for a printable pdf version:
Has Congressman DeFazio changed his tune?
In 1994, he was urging Clinton to invoke the supply provision in the EAA and even sponsored himself a bill – The Timber Fair Trade and Forest Conservation Act (HR 4402) – which would have amended the EAA 1) to require ongoing monitoring by the Secretary of Commerce of domestic supplies and exports of unprocessed timber, and 2) require export control a critical shortage of domestic timber supply for manufacturing occurred. That bill didn't pass, but it raised a solution which would have conserved forests and jobs.
Today, DeFazio is sponsoring a privatization bill that would turn public, BLM-managed forests, over to the timber industry. The result would be a loss of protection for some key remaining older forest stands in Oregon. If history and our recent findings are indicators, this transfer of ownership would not solve the counties' budget crises or unemployment problem.
We plan to delve further into the BLM privatization proposal and bad alternatives that have been proposed.
