GOP Defections Kill Bid for More U.S. Forest Logging

Moderate Republicans sided with environmentalists in the House on Friday to hand a surprising defeat to Western conservatives who had proposed logging and other projects to ease fire threats in national forests.

On a 201-181 vote, the House unexpectedly defeated the “Forest Recovery and Protection Act of 1998” by Rep. Robert F. Smith (R-Ore.), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.

The League of Conservation Voters and other environmental groups led a charge against the bill, which the Clinton administration had threatened to veto, saying it would unnecessarily accelerate logging under the guise of improving forest health.

“Every single environmental group without exception vehemently opposes this bill,” said Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert of New York, one of the 51 Republicans who voted against the measure.

“It is not about forest health. It is about a waste of taxpayer money and a devastation of our national forests,” Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) said.

Smith had been confident the bill would pass, but the defections among GOP moderates proved too much to overcome, partly because 48 House members were absent, having already left town for the weekend.

“Rep. Smith was trying to peddle a logging industry bill as a forest health initiative, but Congress wasn’t buying it,” said Ken Rait, conservation director of the Oregon Natural Resources Council.

Smith said the Forest Service was in “some sort of state of catatonic immobilization” and needed to be pushed by Congress to initiate the special forest treatments, ranging from logging and thinning of dense stands to intentional setting of fires.

“Environmental laws have shut down logging in the Pacific Northwest. Please give us the opportunity to nurture and care for this resource. To let it burn is a huge waste,” Smith said in the spirited floor debate.

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman told Smith in a letter Thursday night the bill was unacceptable, primarily because it would expand an existing forest restoration program to include commercial logging.

“I would have to recommend that the president veto it,” Glickman said.

“The administration strongly opposes the bill’s funding mechanism, which turns an existing restoration-type fund--the Roads and Trails Fund--into a commercial timber harvesting program that would include salvage and thinning of timber in entire forests.”