PUBLISHED: Bush misses forest for the trees

"I really enjoyed that helicopter ride ... and let me tell you, there are a lot of trees up here. So don't listen to the critics."

George Bush's statement during his recent visit to the Northwest illustrates that, as with so many other domestic concerns, he simply has no grasp of the issues involved in our region's logging controversies.

The continued harvest of old-growth forests, which are the spotted owl's primary habitat, will provide some short term jobs, but there just isn't very much commercially viable ancient forest left. At current harvest levels, these stands cannot sustain jobs through another decade, even if we cut down every single old tree that remains.

There are plenty of trees growing in second-growth forests, however, and these are what our President saw from his helicopter. If modern forestry techniques were universally adopted and lands were properly managed to ensure sustainable long-term harvests, these second-growth forests could easily replace timber jobs that are currently being lost.

The timber industry is in need of reform. If President Bush really wanted to preserve timber jobs, he would encourage the industry to move from the destruction of ancient forests to the practice of sustainable techniques in new forests. This would be accomplished by banning clearcutting on all Federal land, mandating that all harvested areas be replanted, and establishing industry standards for accountability in forest practices. Further relief could come to hard-pressed timber workers if raw log exports were halted, and the $300 million annually spent by the Forest Service to subsidize timber companies were instead spent on job retraining and economic development in timber communities.

George Bush's recent visit to the Northwest displayed his ignorance with respect to environmental issues, and seemed directed more towards fixing blame than towards fixing our problems. We need leadership that is less interested in dividing people, and is more interested in bringing them together to work towards a common solution.