Issue Position: Forests and Logging on Public Lands

Issue Position

Our society has shown a fundamental disregard for the ecosystems that provide life on this planet. The United States was originally blanketed with a billion acres of forest. Now only 40 million acres remain uncut. Forests provide clean water and clean air. They regulate climate and provide soil stability and wildlife habitat, including habitat for fish and for the pollinators of food crops. Many modern medicines are derived from the forest. Our very survival as a species depends upon intact forests, yet we have destroyed 96% of our original forests.

And we have not necessarily corrected the error of our ways. President Bush and Congress recently created the "Healthy Forest Initiative," which targets the remaining 4% of intact forest for logging, under the guise of "forest-fire management." I am calling for a fundamental shift of public policy that will protect both our future on this planet and our tax dollar: Zero Cut, Zero Extraction on Public Lands.

The American people own 635 million acres of public land. These public lands are controlled by the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Park Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and are comprised of a variety of ecosystems. Public lands provide 80% of municipal water supplies and half of the remaining habitat left to endangered species. On the other hand, public forests comprise less than 4% of the timber supply derived from this country, and half of the trees cut in the U.S. are exported as minimally processed wood, pulp, and chips! We must end public lands logging and insist on export of only finished wood products, thus protecting both the environment and American jobs. Log exports alone cost 60,000 timber jobs per year, and rampant logging has contributed to a precipitous decline of the fishing industry from coast to coast.

American public lands are currently managed for the short-term profits of corporations. The U.S. Forest Service routinely loses $1.2 billion per year for the taxpayers, since they spend more money building logging roads and administering timber sales for timber companies than they receive from the sale of public trees. The real cost is immeasurably more, since unlike a normal business, the U.S. Forest Service liquidates public assets without any evaluation of inventory worth or replacement cost. An honest, full cost accounting of the Forest Service would reveal that revenues from living public forests are worth over $117 billion per year, yet revenues from Forest Service lands are only $354 million per year. "Conservatives" squander both public money and the irreplaceable ecosystems that our life and economy depend upon. The President must require that, as of January 2005, the federal government purchase only 100% post-consumer waste chlorine-free paper, or 100% tree-free chlorine-free paper. China already makes 80% of its paper from agricultural waste. Why can't we?

Ranching on Public Lands
The Bureau of Land Management manages our public grasslands for the short-term benefit of the livestock industry. Cows and sheep have already permanently destroyed 50% of the nation's grasslands, and are currently munching on another 40%. Only 10% of the nation's original grasslands are available for wildlife, and most of this land is unprotected.

Public lands ranchers have permanently destroyed millions of acres of lands in the arid regions of the West, yet they provide only 3% of the nation's beef supply. The cost for a rancher to use public land for grazing is a mere $1.35 per month for a head of cattle, compared to approximately $10 per month on private lands. According to the Cato Institute, a conservative D.C. think tank, public lands ranchers receive $200 million in direct subsidies yearly. Indirect subsidies and public assets liquidation cost the taxpayers billions per year. The Bush Administration has extended water rights to ranchers that feed on public lands. It is time we stop the ranching on public lands.

In 1931, the federal government created a program to "eradicate, suppress, and control" wildlife species that livestock and agricultural interests find offensive. Since then, "Wildlife Services" of the Department of Agriculture (formerly named the Animal Damage Control Program) has poisoned, shot, gassed, and lethally trapped millions of mammals and birds on public land. This taxpayer-financed operation is responsible for directly decimating all 19 species of large mammals in the West, including the grizzly bear, black bear, gray, red, swift and kit foxes, gray wolf, mountain lion, bobcats, lynx, jaguar, moose, elk, pronghorns, bighorn sheep, mule deer, whitetail deer, buffalo, and coyote. We must end the government-financed killing of wildlife, saving both public land ecosystems and millions of taxpayer dollars.

Mining on Public Lands
Mining on public lands represents yet another taxpayer giveaway to environmental destroyers. For a mere $5 per acre, anyone can stake a mining claim on American public land. The Mineral Policy Center estimates that between 1872 and 1992 the federal government gave away $231 billion in royalty-free mineral reserves to private mining companies on public land. For example, a Canadian company named American Barrick Resources paid less than $10,000 to the Federal Treasury to mine about 2,000 acres of public land in Nevada. The mine is estimated to contain $10 billion worth of gold. Not only do we give away our mining assets for a pittance, but the public is left with cleaning up the toxic mess. Sixty-six Superfund clean-up sites are abandoned mines on public lands. It's estimated that the cost to clean up the current waste left by private mining on public land will be over $1 trillion. Of course, no amount of money can return to life all those already killed by asbestos, arsenic, and lead poisoning. A 1996 report by the General Accounting Office states that mines have left 50 billion tons of waste, the equivalent of 2,400 football fields each filled a mile high. The Bush Administration recently extended the right of miners to leave piles of toxic waste on public lands. I am standing to seek an end to mining on public lands mining and to demand that private corporations pay for the cleanup. I support policies to encourage reuse and reduction of mined material and encourage "mining" of our landfills instead.

Oil Rigs on Public Lands
There are 46,000 oil rigs currently operating on American public lands. The Bush Administration has promoted oil interests both at home and abroad. The Bureau of Land Management is contemplating the eventual drilling of 50,000 oil and gas wells in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. A current proposal would drill 5,000 wells, and require 2,500 miles of new roads and 2,500 miles of pipelines. It would ravage 3,600 square miles of predominately public land in Wyoming, for no more than 15-20 years of extraction. I see another energy future, one dependent upon clean, renewable energy, energy conservation, and efficiency.

In summary, I believe that complete protection of our public lands from exploitive industry is necessary for environmental, economic, and human health. For too long, corporations have plundered our public lands, ravaging the landscape, costing billions in direct taxpayer dollars and trillions in public assets liquidation. I endorse Zero Cut, Zero Extraction on Public Lands.

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