REGIONAL REPORT / TIMBER TUSSLE : Opponents Find Common Ground on Log Export Ban : Both sides in Pacific Northwest’s spotted owl fight agree measure has merit.

In a move that jumped onto the front pages in the Pacific Northwest, Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.) recently won overwhelming Senate approval of a measure to give states the power to ban log exports from state-owned land.

It has turned out to be a masterstroke of politics. Tensions in the region are rising over an anticipated decision next month by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declaring the rare spotted owl a threatened or endangered species. Timber interests say that could reduce logging on federal lands in the Northwest by 50%, resulting in a loss of 13,000 jobs.

But environmentalists, including a large number of city dwellers in the region, believe the owl should be saved and that clear-cutting practices have gone too far.

Packwood’s measure has united both sides, at least for a while.

An estimated one in four trees felled in the Northwest is loaded onto ships for export. Two-thirds of those unmilled logs go to Japan. The commonly held belief is that because of trade barriers in Japan, relatively small amounts of finished lumber products produced in Northwest mills are exported.

Both sides see a gain in the legislation. Millworkers believe a log export ban would pressure Japan into increasing its imports of finished lumber, thus increasing employment in the mills. While lumber exports are increasing, the volume of logs sent overseas last year--4.33 billion board feet--dwarfed the 2.33 billion board feet of exported lumber.

For millworkers in the Northwest, “the squeeze is really starting,” said Julia Brim-Edwards, spokeswoman for Packwood. “ . . . They want some type of action now in anticipation that things are going to get worse.”

At the same time, environmentalists and the increasingly urban populations of the Northwest see the potential in the measure for less logging of old-growth forest where the spotted owl lives.

A Seattle Times poll showed that by a margin of 52% to 38%, people in Washington want the spotted owl saved, even if it means job losses.

Washington Lands Commissioner Brian Boyle, who is responsible for managing state timberland, said “our environment can’t keep up” with clear-cutting practices. “The industry has brought down the wrath of the public,” he said.

The move to ban log exports redirects some of the wrath. Virtually everyone in Oregon wants to ban log exports. Last June, more than 90% of the voters cast ballots favoring an end to exports of logs cut on state land.

Packwood’s measure wouldn’t affect Washington state, at least not immediately. Washington’s constitution requires that the state sell its logs to the highest bidders, all of which happen to be countries in Asia. There is, however, a move to repeal that provision from the state constitution. Washington is the nation’s largest log exporter. The payoff for the state is big. Several hundred million dollars annually from state timber sales help fund public schools in Washington.

Packwood’s measure is expected to go to a conference committee this week. At the same time, Rep. John Miller (R-Wash.) is pushing a measure that seeks to limit exports from Washington state land, allow complete bans on exports from state land in California and Oregon and reduce by half the amount of federal timber that could be sold to exporters.

One catch: Will a log export ban really put the squeeze on the Japanese?

The day after the Senate passed the measure by an 81-17 vote, U.S. and Japanese trade negotiators announced a pact that proponents say could increase the sale of finished U.S. wood products by $1 billion a year.

But that could be the extent of the U.S. leverage. John E. Keatley, land and timber manager for the Weyerhaeuser Co. in Longview, Wash., pointed out that there are plenty of other suppliers for Japan’s 18,000 sawmills, including the Soviet Union.

“Do you think they’re going to let us put the skids on 18,000 sawmills?” Keatley asked. “Come on.”

Times staff writer Art Pine contributed to this story.