At Loggerheads With View on Lumber

“Still Rolling” (Nov. 4) is yet another version of the Poor Little Logger story that is being continually fed to us by the timber industry. It implies that if only the environmentalists hadn’t succeeded in passing their restrictive laws, we’d have more Americans working and more of our timber needs filled.

* A key component of efforts to reduce harvests in the Northwest has been the evidence that they are not sustainable. Softwood saw timber volume is down 25% since 1952 in the Northwest region. Salmon runs have plummeted, regeneration failures are commonplace, and there is no evidence to indicate that we can grow trees in the region on repeated long rotations. It takes 85 to 120 years to produce only an 18-inch diameter Douglas fir tree. Continuing to destroy old growth forests borders between irresponsibility and malice.

* Mexican lumber is available for export because the Mexicans have no interest in building houses from wood regardless of price. Their cultural traditions call for investing in homes that can be occupied by their grandchildren, which is an iffy proposition with 2-by-4 construction. I have personal knowledge of this due to a $40-million project I am currently negotiating with Megaterra of Guadalajara. The same attitudes are prevalent in other countries I do business in, such as Romania. When a wood building is spotted there, it means it’s a shed or a second home.

* The economy in the Northwest has boomed since the restrictions on cutting in the National forests, as the work force has become more skilled and diversified. More forest industry unemployment was caused in the late 1980s by dwindling timber availability due to overcutting and by automation in the timber industry. Their stated concern for their workers is false, as they have tried to eliminate them at every turn.

* Wood construction is cost-effective in this country because of subsidies in the form of capital gains in tax treatment, continued access to below cost government timber sales, and numerous timber stand management tax credits. Douglas fir sells for far more on the international market than it does here. Congress has to a great extent been purchased by the wood products industry, as they try to overturn environmental laws and subsidize the wood industry at every turn. The National Forests are part of the Agriculture Department and are another pork barrel operation. Taxpayers even spend $15 million every year to educate the consumer in wood construction. Steel, the competition, receives no such treatment.

* Depletion of our forests is rarely presented as what it really is, a result of our strange demand for fragile wood houses. Instead, it becomes a battleground of groups who are playing roles rather than establishing the framework--the timber industry, government and environmentalists. The real cause is ourselves, and the media (who often own paper interests) do not address this issue.

MICHAEL RODDY

President

Green Framing Systems

Long Beach