The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has come out with a series of three resolutions regarding timber forest management that, instead of preserving the forests, will actually increase their chances of being destroyed. The first, and most controversial, is the resolution in support of the Bush administration's Healthy Forests Initiative. Although years of fire suppression have made some of the western forests more prone to devastating wildfires, the proposals of the Bush administration would only add more fuel to the fire. Even though Bush presents this as a way to protect homeowners from the fires, it is actually a backdoor attempt to allow timber companies to "thin" backcountry areas under the guise of protection. Rather than taking trees with smaller diameters, thinning will be used to extract more commercially viable, large-diameter trees leaving large amounts of fuel for the hot, devastating fires. The Bush administration also scapegoats environmental groups as the reason for the fires, citing NEPA as a major roadblock, when, in reality, it has been shown that environmental reviews delay very few projects. The second resolution that ALEC is promoting would "ensure proper timber harvesting to ensure forest health." The resolution erroneously suggests the increased timber harvesting will improve watersheds, that so-called proper timber harvesting will decrease fire loads, and that timber programs have been eliminated out west. The third and final resolution is in support of the Sustainable Forest Initiative. ALEC wants us all to believe that voluntary management in the private sector is better than government regulations. Would the national forests still be standing if that were the case? Probably not. ALEC's forest management resolutions promote the interests of timber companies -- not forests.

Ran 11/10/2003