Show 1 THE mE VOICE OF BUSINESS y fl J nf lr ii 4 1 i r eC I 1 Obsolete threat s law raw threatens s lumber supply s I Dy Oy Richard L L. L Lesher President Chamber of Commerce of the United i States Stales Suppose you are a wheat farmer now low would you feel if confronted with a law stating that you may harvest only those stalks of wheat that are dead physiologically mature or large and that every stalk to be harvested must be individually marked and designated It doesn't take much imagination to see what such a law would do to the price of bread THAT LAW doesn't apply to wheat but it is threatening the harvesting of another important important Important im Im- crop Timber The outcome may well be a sharp increase in ip the cost of everything made of or by wood Especially houses It does take a little imagination to think of anything as imposing as a forest as a crop to be harvested But the more you consider it the easier it is to grasp Trees after all are plan plants They can be e sowed grown and harvested Inthe in inthe inthe the same way as wheat or or corn And they are The only differences differences dif are those of scale and the longer growth peri period d. d HARVESTING TREES efficiently efficiently ef ef- like harvesting wheat requires all of the trees in a given area at once The area is then replanted with seedlings and allowed t to grow anew a anew anew new crop while the harvesters move on to another area This system of timber harvesting harvesting harvesting har har- vesting is known as clear cutting and it has has' its proponents and Its opponents The opponents object to the bald look of an area that has been clear cut Proponents say new growth quickly renews the esthetic qualities that have been temporarily lost They also point out that harvesting trees one by one like harvesting harvesting harvesting har har- vesting stalks one byone by byone byone one would greatly increase the costs of tree farming and therefore of lumber paper and many chemicals MOST INDEPENDENT experts on the subject of forestry management agree that clear cutting can be either good or bad for a forest depending on how Intelligently the technique is used I should emphasize that nobody wants to cut trees faster than they can be grown That would be the height of irresponsibility The Service favors properly supervised clear cutting in the National Forests and has permitted the practice for many years Private lumber companies buy the timber from the Federal Government then cut it according to Forest Forest- Service specifications This system is important to everyone because the National Forests not the National Parks which are not involved currently provide one fourth of the supply of US U.S. softwood the raw material for lumber and plywood used in home construction And they contain about one-half one of the potential supply NOW THAT source of wood may be cut off or at least increased drastically in cost because extremist preservatIonists preservationists preservationists have dug up an 1897 law that requires the the tree by tree approach to cutting timber In hi the National Forests Th The law lawIs Is the Organic Act for the National Forests So far the strictest in Interpretation interpretation in In- of this law Is being applied only In parts of Alaska and in the Fourth Circuit which encompasses Virginia West Virginia North and South Carolina and Maryland But preservationists are litigating the issue in the West as well At stake are are hundreds of thousands of jobs in the lumber industry as well as price increases Increases increases in In- creases and shortages for the consumer And the smaller lumber companies would be the hardest hit TilE THE COURTS that have upheld the Organic Act admit that it is probably obsolete but feel helpless to decide otherwise other other- wise The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals said We are not insensitive to the fact that our reading of the Organic Act will have serious and reaching far-reaching consequences and it may well be that this legislation enacted l lover over seventy-five seventy years ago is isan isan isan an anachronism which no longer serves the public in in- terest However the appropriate appropriate appropriate ap ap- forum to resolve this complex and controversial issue is is' is not the courts but the And Congress of course will willbe willbe willbe be reluctant to touch an issue that excites a v vocal cal minority among the environmentalists until the consumers of lumber products become equally ex ex- cited |