Industry Angered, Disappointed By Option 9

Very few in the lumber industry cheered when President Clinton announced his Option t harvest plan July l. Even so-called environmentalists responded with anger and frustration. However, the timber industry resolved to continue working with the Adminisuation and Congless to fashion a more reasonable solution o ttre timber crisis.

Gary Donnelly, executive vice president of National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association, summed up the reaction of most retailers when he said, "In our opinion, not only does the President have a distorted view of 'balance,' he has wasted the time and effort of five cabinet agencies, not to mention us civilians over the last 90 days developing this balanced approach."

Legislators, too, felt betrayed by the decision. Many from areas sustained by the lumber industry as well as Speaker Tom Foley refused to auend the announcement ceremony.

Prepared by the Ecosystem Management Assessment Working Group, Optrm 9 stipulates: o Federal forest harvests in the coast areas of Washington, Oregon and Northern California will be held to 12 billion board feet over the next 10 years - 1.2 billion annually. @uring the '80s annual harvests were around 5 billion, although they have dropped below Oat in more recent years.) o Displaced workers and timber dependent communities will receive $270 million for fiscal year 1994 or $1.2 billion over five years in economic aid. o Reserve areas for owls will be set up with logging limited to some salvage and thinning of young trees if it poses no th€at 0o the species. o Ten adaptive manegement aeas of 78,000 to 380,000 acres each will be established for ecological experiments. o Protection of entire watersheds will be attempted in order to head off controversies over endangered salmon and other fish species.

The Administration said it win try to make 2 billion bord feet of timber available this year from previously approved or consummated sales, some salvage and some timber ftom Indian lands.

Because the plan will be implemented administratively, it does not need congressional app'roval with Oe possible exceptim of authaization of economic aid funds. The plan was filed July 16 as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in rcsponse to the existing court imposed injunction. If this fourth attempt (three under hesident Bush) to have the injunction lifted fails, or if the EIS is challenged in court as enviros thr€at€n, the plan will probably be taken o Congress.

As rnny as 85,0fl) direct and indirect jobs are expected o be lost with the portion of the timber industry dependent on federal lands ceasing o exist.

Although, in a brud sense, Option 9 addresses only problems in the Northwesl some feel it can be considered an indication of how difficult resolving the issue of the red oockaded woodpecker in the South could be. Private landowners might be reluctant to accept federal restrictions on harvesting.

Moulding Association Members Visit Russia

Eleven persons representing seven Wood Moulding & Millwork Producers Association member firns visited sawmills in St. Petersburg to investigate establishing supplier/customer relationships during a Russian lumber fact finding uip June 11-18.

Greg Applen, Medford Moulding Corp., White City, Or.; David Cap'ps, Woodlands Millwork, Conroe, Tx.; Tom Carroll, Lawrence Sauder and Ron Smalley, Sauder Industries, Vancouver, B.C.; Frank DeMott, Best Moulding Corp., Albuquerque, N.M.; Don and Jim Gonsalves, Western