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Show SS See oS NR ES high quality environments. National Forest logging generates millions of dollars in tort claims against the government each year because it creates enormous costs in terms of death, injury and property damage. Logging is consistently the most dangerous profession in the United States, with an accident rate recently estimated at 142 per 100,000 workers. Taxi drivers and chauffeurs are a distant second. A property owner in Washington is seeking $1,000,000 in damages from the Forest Service for a logging-induced landslide that washed away her home. She is among many owners of properties adjacent to National Forests who have witnessed destruction of their homes and land from increased floods and landslides. The alleged benefits of Forest Service timber sales are seriously overstated in ES PEED IS Sa RE . a UOT ESD SU a oO TEES eS Geren | : another, more fundamental manner. Forest Service timber sales are heavily subsidized, and, as such, they are anti-competitive. Subsidized timber sales on National Forest lands place small scale producers who operate on their own lands at a competitive disadvantage, creating costs in terms of lost revenues and jobs. Subsidized National Forest timber sales also create market barriers for alternative fiber producers and recyclers. Economists call these "displacement costs." While the Forest Service takes credit for creating wood products jobs, in many cases, the agency is simply displacing jobs that would otherwise be available harvesting timber from private lands or supplying recycled and alternative fiber products. When National Forest timber sales have been reduced, in many regions, jobs and income in the wood products sector have actually increased. ; a "Southern Utah's Finest Selection 100 S. MAIN STREET 259.8118 Siferibd to The Zephyr One year for $15...Details on Page 3 In Utah, for example, between 1988 and 1994, National Forest timber harvests dropped by 56%. During that same period jobs in the wood products sector increased+ by precisely the same amount. When added to the $1.2 billion financial losses incurred by the logging program each year, externalities and displacement costs render the National Forest timber sale program an absymal failure from an economic perspective. By law, the Forest Service must maximize the net social and economic benefits of its management programs for all Americans and fully account for the benefits of unlogged forests and the costs of logging in its timber sale program decisions. Unfortunately, the Forest Service ignores this type of analysis when justifying the timber sale program to Congress and the American people. At every level of planning, the Forest Service invokes its discretion to ignore the vast ecosystem service values of unlogged forests and externalities of the logging program. Instead, the only economic benefits and costs quantified at any level of timber sale program planning are those benefits and costs attributable to the sale and processing of wood products. If the Forest Service took ecosystem service values and externalities into account, it is likely that few, if any timber sales could be justified on National Forest lands. For copies of the full report, send a check for $20 payable to Forest Conservation Council at P.O. Box 22488, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87502. PRINTS We write custom software for the big poople ond i cobiet the little...OK...We 96 EAST CENTER STREET 435.259.4244 Wwww.moab-utah.com/hotel/ offcenter.htm! mountainbiketours.com/ offcenter.html TIM'S BACK! and ready to welcome back old friends and greet new ones. _ And how much did you LOSE today? PURVEYORS OF USER BLISS. What do you want to believe today? all into your computer. 121 E.. 100 S.. #108. Moab, UT 84532 435.259.4384 800.635.5280 HOTEL OLE CCNTER "What do you want to believe today?" is a registered _' trademark of the Footprints Corporation. |