Clinton Calls on Cabinet to Craft Forest-Jobs Plan

President Clinton, presiding over a one-day timber “summit” here Friday, said he had given his Cabinet 60 days to develop a plan to end the warfare between timber and environmental interests over logging in the Northwest’s ancient forests.

“You want us to try to break the paralysis that presently controls the situation,” Clinton told advocates on both sides of the issue after a round-table hearing on the nation’s most visible environmental problem. “Even when you were disagreeing, every one of you was a voice for change.”

The meeting, held at the Portland Convention Center with Vice President Al Gore and five Clinton Cabinet members in attendance, was intended to provide Clinton with a firsthand view of the impasse that has developed since the courts halted timber sales from federal lands to protect the northern spotted owl.

Environmentalists say that halt must remain in force to save dozens of species in the 3 million acres of ancient forests that remain; logging interests and labor say the region could lose 30,000 jobs if the sales are not soon resumed.

But Clinton insisted that the region “can move beyond confrontation to build a consensus on a balanced policy. This is not about choosing between jobs and the environment, but about recognizing the importance of both.”

The President said he was directing his Cabinet to develop a “balanced and comprehensive long-term policy” that would follow a series of guidelines, and satisfy the needs to protect the forests and provide jobs for the timber communities that have been strained by a shrinking industry.

The issue has shaped up as the first important test of Clinton’s ability to satisfy environmentalists while at the same time living up to his vow to make jobs his highest priority.

In laying out guidelines for the plan, Clinton said the Administration “must never forget the human and economic dimensions of the problem,” while allowing timber sales where the forest can be protected. But the Administration should “do our best to offer new economic opportunities” where logging cannot be allowed for fear of damaging the forests.

Using language that would please environmentalists, Clinton said the government’s effort must be “scientifically sound, economically credible and legally responsible.” He said the policy should aim to produce a “predictable and sustainable level of timber sales.”

Clinton announced his plans after the hearing that focused largely on the need for jobs and the distress of communities hard-hit by the timber-sale ban. But advocates on both sides said Clinton’s guidelines seemed to be evenly balanced, and described themselves as pleased with the initial results.

Karin Sheldon, president of the Wilderness Society, said the tenor of the meeting had concerned her, but that Clinton’s closing statement left her “optimistic.”

Mark E. Rey, executive director of the American Forest & Paper Assn., the leading trade group, predicted that the President’s initiative would open the way to some logging in the old forests. “That’s the news here,” he said.

Clinton’s announcement will begin a period of intense behind-the-scenes lobbying by both sides, and presumably by members of the Northwest’s congressional delegation.

For the last word on the summit, Clinton later met with a handful of West Coast newspaper reporters and said he preferred that he be given a chance to make America’s environmental laws work before proposing new legislation. But he acknowledged, “this will be the toughest test to see if you can make the laws work.”

In the end, Clinton said a successful resolution would be felt across the land. “If we can solve this here, it might be a model for . . . a lot of other tough environmental issues that are coming right up.”

In the eight-hour hearing, a succession of about 50 speakers told emotional stories about jobless workers and their distressed families.

Archbishop Thomas Murphy of Seattle told of a man who came to him lamenting that he had spent a lifetime in logging, lost his job and ended up sleeping in his pickup truck on the shoulder of the road.

“The loss of that man and those like him is evident in the empty storefronts . . . and downtown soup kitchens” of the Northwest, Murphy said. He said the strains of the crisis were being felt in and drug and alcohol abuse throughout the region.

Frank Tallerico, superintendent of schools in Siskiyou County, Calif., told how the impact of logging cutbacks had led to social upheavals, including increased juvenile delinquency, and a surge in welfare and unemployment applications. And, when fathers leave the community to look for work elsewhere, “we are de facto creating single-parent families,” Tallerico said.

Nadine Bailey, a longtime spokeswoman for loggers from Hayfork, Calif., said her county has seen its unemployment rate rise to 23% recently, while the share of schoolchildren eligible for free lunches has risen to 60%. “There’s not much more for us to give,” said Bailey, whose family has been in the business for three generations.

Another witness told of “modern Paul Bunyans who are hiding in the car when the wife buys groceries with food stamps.”

Clinton, who promised to call the summit during a campaign swing through the Northwest last year, stressed his personal sympathy for the jobless and their families.

He described how his home state of Arkansas was twice torn this century by agricultural recessions that drove many into deep poverty or out of the state.

“I can’t repeal the laws of change,” Clinton said, using a favorite phrase. But, “some of us have a feel for what that must be like in those small towns, and we’ll do what we can.”

Environmentalists spoke of their sorrow at signs that the animal species were disappearing with the forests.

Diana Draper, a lawyer and Audubon Society activist, said that the disappearance of some animal species was like the auto engine lights that signal impending breakdown. They are “the equivalent of all the lights coming on at once,” she said.

The conference also allowed environmentalists to make an important point: That deterioration of the forest habitats and watersheds reduce salmon harvests, thus hurting working-class fishing families who are very much like those of the loggers.

Nat Bingham, a commercial fisherman, warned that the declining forests were damaging spawning areas so badly that several species of fish could become endangered. And the impact of that, he said, would make the two-year battle over the spotted owl “pale in comparison.”

Bingham, responding to questions from Gore, estimated that the commercial fishing industry produces 65,000 jobs, directly and indirectly, in Washington, Oregon and California.

Speakers thanked Clinton for focusing national attention on their difficulties. “We enthusiastically embrace your promise to end the gridlock,” said Michael Draper, executive secretary of the Western Council of Industrial Workers, which represents many of the affected workers.

The session allowed Clinton to play a role he enjoys, of directing a detailed policy discussion, in some ways recalling the “economic summit” he held in Little Rock, Ark., before his inauguration.

He hinted in an interview with the Portland Oregonian that he believed the best approach might be to reach an agreement on economic and environmental goals, and then to derive specific solutions.

“We’ve got to think about these bigger questions and try to come up with a big plan for the long run, and then work back to the specific questions,” Clinton said.

Environmentalists argued against any solution that meant the resumption of logging in the old timberlands.

“So little is left that environmentalists are not in a position to compromise that any further,” said Andy Kerr of the Oregon Natural Resources Council. “The forest has been compromised all it can stand.”

Adding to the environmentalists’ worries was the Administration’s temporary retreat this week on plans to increase fees for mining and grazing on federal lands. “What started out as a love affair now quite frankly feels more like date rape,” said Jay Hair of the National Wildlife Federation.

Environmentalists instead urged the Administration to help create jobs by banning log exports, which would increase business for U.S. lumber mills. Currently, one out of four logs is shipped to overseas mills. And they advocate that the government step up aid to stricken communities, and find other ways to develop the towns’ economies.

The conference took place in a carnival atmosphere that had been building in Portland for days.

The city has been the site of a continuing series of vigils, rallies, news conferences and other media events. About 50,000 showed up for a Thursday concert sponsored by environmentalists that featured ‘60s-era rock performers Carole King, David Crosby, Kenny Loggins and Neil Young.

On Friday, the other side took its turn with a daylong gathering at the same park by the Willamette River, sponsored by the timber industry.

Times staff writer John Balzar contributed to this story.