Those Pricey Back Roads

Taxpayer subsidies to logging companies that cut roads through federal forests have proven fiscally wasteful and environmentally destructive. Bipartisan legislation scheduled to come before the House today would end this federal giveaway. It’s time to do so.

More than 380,000 miles of dirt logging roads already web the nation’s forests. That’s enough to circle the Earth nearly 15 times. In some parts of the Northwest, one square mile of forest is laced with up to 20 miles of road.

Timber companies that purchase federal forest parcels at auction win not only the right to log trees but also to cut these access roads. Under existing law, the companies then deduct the cost of road building from their payments to the Treasury. Taxpayers give back close to $50 million a year under this arrangement. In addition, the federal government is responsible for maintaining all these roads, and that cost rises with every new mile cut.

The public and the forests lose in other ways as well from this industry subsidy. Roads channel storm water, eroding land and dumping rocks and soil into stream beds. As surrounding trees are cut, the risk of flooding increases, destroying watersheds and habitat for fish and wildlife.

An amendment to a bill funding the U.S. Forest Service would eliminate the logger’s credit for road building; timber companies should rightly bear that cost. The government would still maintain these roads. Perhaps without the giveaway, the backlog of road repair could be reduced and the watershed destruction slowed in some forests.