End of the Road for the Purchaser Credit Program
House Republican leaders have agreed to eliminate the
timber purchaser road credit program, which reimburses forest products
companies for the costs of building roads when harvesting timber on national
forests. The move, reportedly brokered by House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA),
could end one of the most divisive forest policy debates of the last few
years.
For years, environmental advocates have characterized the purchaser road credits as a government subsidy. Forest products industry officials have contended that the program is not a subsidy in the sense that without the road credits they would simply offer to pay less for the timber they harvest.
"We support the agreement and applaud those who put it together," says Stefany Bales, communications program manager with the Intermountain Forest Industry Association, a trade association of forest products companies and landowners in Idaho and Montana. "We still think the purchaser road credit program is an appropriate way to fund forest roads. Eliminating the program will burden some of our folks. But it's an action we can live with if it will minimize future conflict."
The agreement drew a mixed reaction from environmental groups, some of whom have long sought to halt road building on national forests. "It doesn't go far enough, but if the agreement holds and there is no monkey business, it's a good first step," said Marty Hayden, policy director for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.
The agreement, pushed mainly by Rep. John Edward Porter (R-IL), demonstrated the continuing influence of a bloc of some 30 to 50 moderate Republicans with pro-environment leanings, particularly in this election year.
The deal between pro-environment moderates and legislators primarily from timber-producing states in the West will be reflected in the House version of the spending bill covering USDA Forest Service operations in fiscal 1999. In exchange for terminating the program, the Republican moderates have reportedly agreed to not propose limiting other federal timber programs this year, such as trying to reduce maintenance of existing roads. And pro-logging legislators say they won't try to increase logging efforts on public lands, such as attempting to lift a Clinton administration moratorium already in place on road building in currently roadless areas of national forests.
Although only Republicans have endorsed the deal, it appears likely that they have the numbers to prevail in the House, even if some Democrats object. The Senate would have to agree, as well, for the plan to pass.
The agreement does not mean that no more roads will be built to haul timber from public lands. The Forest Service continues to have its own budget for building and maintaining roads. And timber companies will still build roads using their own money.
Last year a spirited debate on the purchaser road credit program split the House and the Senate in two narrowly divided floor votes. The road building program barely survived. The agreement was an effort to avoid a similiar battle.
The road building credits cost the government $58 million in 1995, but that amount dropped to $37 million last year. Under the program, 418 miles of new roads and 18 new bridges were built in 1996.
For a copy of SAF's position statement regarding roads on national forests, visit the SAF website at http://www.safnet.org/archive/roads3.htm.