Environmentalists have been united in calling for a repeal of the Lawless Logging Rider since it was signed. Recently, President Clinton has indicated that he knows there is something wrong with the rider, but isn't quite sure what to do about it. Certainly, he has stopped short of endorsing the complete repeal of the Rider. He has indicated that he would like to repeal the "green" parts of it, i.e., the parts of the rider that allow green and healthy trees to be cut down along with the trees that are being "salvaged" because they are dying, diseased or down. The language of the Rider is so vague that the whole of the forest is opened to "salvage cutting." Insect infestations, dead, down and very old trees are an important and normal part of healthy, functioning forest ecosystems. A forest with any of these conditions, even just the presence of old trees, is open to salvage operation under the Rider. Clinton says he is especially concerned about preserving old-growth trees which are certainly doomed now under the Rider's present provisions. He has also indicated that he may want to "fix" other provisions of the rider including overhauling the salvage program itself.
Word that Clinton is interested in doing something about the Logging Without Laws Rider, officially known as Section 2001 of Public Law 104-19, the public-land logging provisions of the FY 95 Rescissions Bill, has drawn flack from the Wise Use Movement and its puppets in Congress, including our own Representative from the North Coast of California, Frank Riggs. In a letter to the President dated February 28th, Riggs and a few of his "Republican Revolution" colleagues beg the President to not only keep the new logging law in place but to push for the maximum amount of cutting possible under its provisions. The letter says, in part, "Your call for repeal does not make any sense to us. If baffles our constituents who work in sawmills across the West. They ask us why they have no jobs when they are surrounded by forests full of dead wood."
The President, if he understood anything about forestry, could of course answer Mr. Riggs by saying, "Your constituents are out of work because the timber companies they used to work for have depleted our nation's forests down to a small fraction of the volume of timber they should now bear. What is worse, the management practices of these companies have left the shards of forest we have left in weakened condition, as if they were hoping these remnants of forest would sicken and die, providing an easy excuse for them to take down all the rest in one last swipe. Nature has a way to heal our forests; a cure that has been tried and proven through countless ages dating back far beyond the written history of people. This cure does not include the removal of the essential remaining biomass through the use of chainsaws and bulldozers." We expect, however, that the President's response will be far less biologically and much more politically oriented, once it comes.
In the meantime, there are bills coming forward in both the House and the Senate that call for complete repeal of the Lawless Logging Rider. In the House, Rep. Elizabeth Furse (D-OR) has authored HR 2745 which calls for repeal of the Rider. The bill has 125 cosponsors at last count. In the Senate, Sen. Bill Bradley (D-NJ) has authored a bill that calls for repeal of the Lawless Logging Rider and also calls for a forest-related study. Environmentalists are not happy with the language Bradley has used to call for this forest study because it directs the Forest Service to identify and prioritize the "timber stands" which need "treatment". It is important that the term "timber stands" be replaced by the term "forest ecosystems" because it is the health of these ecosystems, including watercourses, fish and wildlife that must be the goal of our national policies. To her credit, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has agreed to be a cosponsor and it is now being touted as the Bradley/Boxer bill. Calls, letters and faxes are urgently needed, right now, to your Representatives and Senators, including to Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA), urging them to support complete repeal of the Lawless Logging Rider. In addition, the same message should be delivered to the White House via the public comment phone line, 202-456-1111; Leon Panetta message phone, 202-456-6797; Leon Panetta, White House Chief of Staff fax line, 202-456-2883; Katie McGinty, CEQ, fax 202-456-2710; and Dan Glickman, Sec. of Agriculture, fax 202-720-2166.
There are, of course, other bills concerning the Rider which are also coming forward. These bills seek to change the Rider, or repeal and then replace the Rider with different language. In particular, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) has a bill which combines Rider repeal and additional provisions which are badly worded and/or conceived. Also, Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-OR) and Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA) are expected to put language into the next Appropriations Continuing Resolution that will alter the Section 318 and Option 9 portions of the Rider. When contacting your public servants in government, it is probably best to make it clear to everybody that you want full repeal of the Lawless Logging Rider and that no new Riders should go into law.
Finally, there is yet another challenge to the Lawless Logging Rider, the law that has been called "arguably the worst piece of legislation ever enacted in the history of the nation." The Biodiversity Legal Foundation and the Alabama Wilderness Alliance filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service in federal district court in Montgomery on December 15, 1995. The suit challenges the Rider on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. The logic is as follows: since the Rider suspends all applicable environmental protection laws, and since the Rider drastically reduces the relief a federal judge could ordinarily grant to prevent abuse of federal forestlands, the Rider therefore violates our (we the people's) rights to due process, to equal protection, to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and to the separation of powers. If the litigants prevail in this suit, it could influence the way salvage timber programs are conducted, even if Congress and the President do nothing about repealing the Rider. However, getting rid of this terrible law would be the best solution to the problem.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1997
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited