Lumber industry anticipates Northwest Timber Summit

Industry members and organizations were gererally skeptical regud- ing President Clinton's proposed Timber Summit in Portland, Or., April2, as we went to prcss. Deails of the neeting win be covered in the May issue.

Vice President Al Gore, Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Environmental Protection Agency director Carol Browner were expected to join Clinton in the one day session after spending time in the Northwest visiting mills, timber communities and forests. The President will be enroute to an international summit with Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin in Vancouver, B.C.

"It's time to break the gridlock that has blocked action and bring all sides together to craft a balanced approach," Clinton said in a statement announcing the meeting.

Mark Rey, American Forest and

Paper Association, said before the summit that the industry will suppat some land set-asides to protect the spotted owl and some portion of the remaining unprotected ancient forest. But, in nrn, the industry wants guranteqs of a 'teasonabld' level of harvest and the rewriting of environmental laws by Congress so that environmentalists cannot so easily challenge logging in the courts.

"The upcoming summit will be an important catalyst for resolving the deepening forest crisis in the Northwest. The impact is being felt in the country as a whole with lumber prices increasing 907o since last October as a consequence of court injunctions, administrative appeals and other restrictions that have virtually shut off a critical supply of timber fron both private and public lands," he said.

Mike Draper, executive secretary of the Western Council of Industrial Workers, said environmentalists are