WASHINGTON -- Critics of the government's logging policy in Southeast Alaska are pressing an amendment in the U.S. House that would prohibit government spending to build logging roads in the Tongass National Forest.
Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., one of the amendment sponsors, told reporters Monday the Tongass logging program loses an average of $40 million a year.
"The taxpayers I represent are investors in the U.S. government," he said. From their perspective, he said, the Tongass is a loser: The government is spending more to build logging roads and administer the logging program than it is receiving from timber sales.
"You've got an enormous waste of money," Andrews said. "You've got a policy that makes no sense from the point of view of the environment."
He has joined forces with Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, on an amendment to the Interior appropriations bill that could be up for debate on the House floor later this week. Their efforts are backed by a diverse coalition that includes Taxpayers for Common Sense, the Alaska Coalition and other environmental groups.
The Forest Service and its critics usually disagree over the amount the government spends on the Tongass timber program. Andrews cited the costs last year as $49 million. But Dennis Neill, a Forest Service spokesman in the Tongass, said the cost for 2005 was only $24 million. Timber receipts, Neill said, were disappointing: about $400,000.
The industry is in a period of transition, he said.
"This is not about revenues," Neill said. "This is about investments in the long-term future of the economy of Southeast Alaska."
Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, is gearing up to fight the Chabot-Andrews amendment.
The ban on road-building funds "would ignore local decision making, creating a one-size-fits-all approach for the Tongass without consideration of the needs of the forest and the communities and Alaskans that rely on it," Young said in a written statement.
The resources of the Tongass, which encompasses most of Southeast Alaska, could contribute greatly to the economy, Young said.
"The only way to reach this opportunity is to provide the roadways that Alaska lacks, to reach where we need to be," he said.
Environmentalists, on the other hand, have noted the price of Tongass timber has plunged. The government, they say, is subsidizing an industry that is on its deathbed.
Forest Service officials say timber production also provides jobs and develops useful roads.
"Very often timber sales are the least-cost method of gaining these improvements and other benefits," the Forest Service says on its Web site.
Whether new roads in the Tongass are a benefit or a blight is a matter of perspective.
The coalition promoting the Chabot-Andrews amendment is calling them "roads to nowhere."
Two years ago, the House passed a similar Tongass amendment 222-205, but it was left out of the final bill. Last year, House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., blocked a different version on procedural grounds.
Andrews said he expected to pick up votes from fiscally conservative Republicans this year.
"We need to look for areas to spend less," he said. "Here's one."
Reporter Liz Ruskin can be reached at lruskin@adn.com or in Washington at 202-383-0007.
