Copyright 1999 Federal Document Clearing House, Inc.
Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony
March 04, 1999
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 867 words
HEADLINE:
TESTIMONY March 04, 1999 BART STUPAK REPRENTATIVE HOUSE
RESOURCES FORESTS AND FOREST HEALTH FOREST SERVICE ROADS
BODY:
Testimony of Representative Bart Stupak
Before the House Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health on the U.S.
Forest Service's Roads Moratorium March 4. 1999 Madame Chair, thank you for
holding this hearing today and for allowing me the opportunity to offer my
comments on this important issue. As I testified before this Committee last year
on this matter, I have a number of concerns regarding the Forest Service's roads
moratorium. This moratorium undermines years of hard work in our national
forests and threatens forest health, jobs in the forest industry and our local
communities. First, I am very concerned that the moratorium on forest roads will
undermine the hard work by our local citizens and subvert agreements that have
been reached in managing' our federal lands. In Michigan, a number of parties
from all sides of the forestry debate spent years negotiating a management
agreement for two national forests in my district, the Ottawa and Hiawatha. A
moratorium on new forest roads could jeopardize these agreements, as well as
countless others like it around the nation. Instead of allowing regional
foresters and local citizens to determine how their forests should be managed, a
bureaucratic decision has been made in Washington, D.C. to impose this
moratorium on the entire nation. Second, this moratorium could have an adverse
effect on forest health. Since 199 1, more trees die and rot each year in
national forests than is sold for timber. This new policy will only increase
this trend, promoting the outbreak of disease and creating fuel for forest
fires. The Forest Service itself estimates that 40 million acres of its forest
are at great risk of being consumed by catastrophic wildfire, the majority of
which are located in roadless areas. Without the ability to
conduct proper forest management activities, the risk of disease outbreak and
forest fires increases dramatically. Thirdly, the roads moratorium could have a
significant impact on jobs in the forest industry. According to information
provided by the Administration last year, more than 12,000 jobs could be lost as
a result of this policy. In my district, which already suffers from high
unemployment, the forest industry is one of my top employers. I am very
concerned that this moratorium on road building will also cause a moratorium on
forest industry jobs. In addition, this policy could harm the environment on
state and private lands. In order to meet the terms of contracts, timber
companies will be forced to seek alternative sources of wood to replace the
timber that is restricted by the moratorium. As a result, the pressure will
increase to cut more timber on state and private lands, possibly threatening the
environment on these lands. Placing a blanket, national moratorium may stop road
building on federal lands, but in exchange, it could severely threaten the
environment on state and private lands. Finally, the moratorium could also have
a drastic effect on our local communities. By law, counties with national forest
lands receive payments equaling 25 percent of gross federal timber revenues.
These payments are used by county governments, districts and school boards for
education programs and road maintenance. -The Forest Service has been reported
to have estimated that this policy could result in the loss of $160 million in
revenue -- a conservative estimate at best. At a time when the PELT program
remains woefully underfunded, local communities may be the hardest hit by this
moratorium. Madame Chair, in closing, I would like to touch upon one last,
important point. Many of the arguments surrounding these discussions focus on
the environmental impact and economic viability of timber programs. While these
are certainly important issues, I am afraid that lost in this debate is the
impact a roads moratorium would have on working families and rural communities.
As I have stated before, our forests are a vital part of our economy and
livelihood in my congressional district. With three national forests in my
district, thousands of working families literally rely on these forests to put
food on the table. Many people think of the timber industry as giant businesses
that slash and clear cut forests simply for profit. The truth is, however, that
the majority of people in the timber industry are family businesses -- "mom and
pop" operations that are struggling to make ends meet and that truly care about
our forests and environment. While attempts to cut forestry programs on our
national forests may be made in the name of environmental protection or aimed at
large corporations, that is not where their impact is felt the most. Not only do
these cuts negatively impact forest health, but they also hurt our counties, our
schools, our road programs, our emergency services, and our working families.
We, and our forests, can ill afford to continue down this path. Again, thank
you, Madame Chair, for holding this hearing on this important issue. I hope that
we can reconsider this ill-advised policy and, instead, work to address the
problem of forest health in the future in a more effective and reasonable
manner.
LOAD-DATE: April 13, 1999
