EARTHKEEPING NEWS A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY Volume Eight, Number Five July/August 1999 Call to Action: Remove Governmental Incentives for Timber Sales Current Forest Service budget priorities are harming both the environment and the economy by emphasizing logging at the expense of activities that are needed to restore the environment and to provide greater economic returns. Old-growth, roadless areas and critical riparian habitat are all still being clearcut on public lands. Over one-third of the Forest Service budget is spent on logging, and only 11% is spent on recreation, fish and wildlife and watershed improvements. The Forest Service has access to over $600 million for which it is not accountable. The agency has failed two government audits of its financial records. How come? The Forest Service has three off-budget funds to which the agency diverts money it receives from selling timber from our national forests. Timber sales are the single biggest money maker for the Forest Service bureaucracy, which profits directly from the sale of trees. Brush Disposal Fund. Created by Congress in 1916, this fund authorizes the Forest Service to charge timber purchasers a deposit to cover the cost of disposing of unwanted debris and brush left after logging. The more timber sold, the higher the deposit, a substantial portion of which is spent on agency overhead. Knutson-Vandenberg Fund. Created by Congress in 1930, this fund authorizes the Forest Service to charge timber purchasers a deposit to cover the cost of replanting young trees after logging. Beginning in 1956, the Forest Service stopped charging the purchaser an extra deposit. Instead, the Forest Service takes the Knutson-Vandenberg money directly out of the bid price for the timber. As a result, many timber sales return to the US Treasury only 1% of the bid price, leaving the Forest Service 99% for its own uses. Salvage Sale Fund. Created by Congress in 1976, this fund authorizes the Forest Service to keep all the money it makes from selling "salvage sales," to spend on paying the cost of these sales. The Forest Service diverts about a third of this money to agency overhead. Other incentives for excessive logging lie in the funding mechanism for rural schools. A percentage of the timber sales is allocated to fund schools in counties with BLM and national forest land. This gives a major incentive to county educators and administrators to support more logging, even though this may deprive students of their heritage. The American Lands Alliance, Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics and other groups are calling for the elimination of all off-budget funds to restore agency accountability and to end the current incentive to log. They also call for decoupling county payments for schools from timber sales. Contact your Representatives and Senators about the needed changes in the Forest Service funding processes. Help generate the political will to repeal the authorization for the three off-budget funds. Contact Forest Service Chief Dombeck to separate timber sales from education funding. Information from Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (FSEEE), PO Box 11615, Eugene OR 97440; 541/ 484-2692; Washington office: 202/ 547-9681; fseee@earthlink.net and www.afseee.org. Also from American Lands Alliance, 726 7th St. SE, Washington DC 20003; 202/ 547-9105; wafcdc@americanlands.org. Home     Table of Contents