[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 5792-5793]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



               FEBRUARY 22 FOREST ROUNDTABLE IN MISSOULA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DENNIS REHBERG

                               of montana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 4, 2001

  Mr. REHBERG. Mr. Speaker, on February 22 I sponsored a roundtable 
discussion in Missoula, Montana on forest health issues. This 
discussion included presentations from a wide array of interests.
  Representing the conservation community were Tom France of the 
National Wildlife Federation, Cesar Hernandez of the Montana Wilderness 
Association and Steve Thompson of the Montana Conservation Voters. 
Forest products industry witnesses were Kim Liles of the Pulp and 
Paperworkers Resource Council, Jim Hurst of Owens and Hurst Lumber, 
Sherm Anderson of the Montana Logging Association and Roger Johnson of 
Pyramid Mountain Lumber. County governments were represented by 
Commissioners Barbara Evans of Missoula County, Alan Thompson of 
Ravalli County, Dale Williams of Flathead County and Rita Windham of 
Lincoln County. Providing creative ideas practiced on non-federal lands 
were Garry Orr of the Salish-Kootenai Tribes and Tom Schultz with the 
Montana Department of State Lands. Finally, the scientific and academic 
communities were represented by Drs. Chuck Keegan and Carl Fiedler of 
the University of Montana and U.S. Forest Service fire ecologist Steve 
Arno.
  This roundtable, and one scheduled for April 18 in Hamilton, will 
provide me with firsthand accounts of what is working and not working 
regarding management of Montana's forests. As a member of both the 
House Committees on Agriculture and Resources, that have jurisdiction 
over forest management, I am seeking ``made in Montana'' solutions to 
our current challenges in forest management.
  I encourage my colleagues to read the following article by Sherry 
Devlin on the Missoula roundtable that appeared in the February 23 
Missoulian. I also highly recommend reading the testimony of Kim Liles 
who is a papermaker for Smurfit-Stone Container in Frenchtown, Montana 
and a member of Hellgate Local 8-0885 PACE International Union.

               [From the Missoulian (MT), Feb. 23, 2001]

                     Rehberg Gets Earful on Forests


     Industry officials say control should stay with local experts

                           (By Sherry Devlin)

       The rest of the country should just ``butt out'' and let 
     Montanans manage the national forests in their back yards, a 
     Eureka sawmill owner told U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg's forest-
     management roundtable Thursday.
       ``I'm not going to tell the people of New York City how to 
     manage Central Park,'' said Jim Hurst, owner of Owens and 
     Hurst Lumber Co. ``So why should they be telling us how to 
     manage the Kootenai National Forest? I say they should butt 
     out.''
       Montanans, Hurst said, can work their way through even the 
     thorniest forest-management issues. It's the national 
     dictates--of presidents, congressmen and bureaucrats--that 
     make people dig in their heels.
       So went the conversation during a four-hour, four-panel 
     series of roundtable discussions at the University of 
     Montana, called by Rehberg--he said--to learn more about 
     forest-management issues and to look for common ground. ``Is 
     there anything that we can all agree on?'' he asked.
       ``Yes,'' said paper maker Kim Liles. ``I share everyone's 
     concern for the health, conservation and beauty of this great 
     state. I most certainly do not want to destroy the 
     environment.''
       ``Yes,'' said environmental lawyer Tom France. ``If it's 
     not just a rush to get timber off the hill, but a rush to do 
     right by the land.''
       ``Good,'' said Rehberg, the Republican elected in November 
     to Montana's single seat in the House of Representatives. 
     ``People have this preconceived notion that I have a 
     preconceived notion about forest management. And I don't. I 
     am serious about the consensus process.''
       Collaboration can work; it can yield timber cutting and 
     endangered-species recovery,

[[Page 5793]]

     said France, an attorney for the National Wildlife Federation 
     in Missoula.
       Loggers and environmentalists have been able to look at 
     specific pieces of land and agree upon ``appropriate timber 
     harvest'' that ``lays lightly on the land,'' he said. ``It 
     works best when we are discussing specific tracts of land in 
     our own, local area.''
       ``Let's start talking about salvage logging in burned areas 
     and restoration projects in the urban-wildland interface,'' 
     said Anne Dahl of the Swan Ecosystem Center. ``We are very 
     capable of making good decisions as a community.''
       ``We need to start over and practice sustainable forestry 
     on the millions and millions of acres of forest land that we 
     already roaded and developed,'' said Steve Thompson, a 
     Whitefish consultant, writer and environmental activist.
       Don't get distracted, Thompson advised, by focusing your 
     energy on a repeal of President Clinton's roadless 
     initiative--the last administration's controversial ban on 
     road building and logging on 58 million acres of undeveloped 
     national forest land.
       ``Many of the forest issues that we face are very 
     polarized, very difficult,'' France said. ``They are not 
     easily resolved by even powerful congressmen in Washington, 
     D.C. I encourage you to focus on the places where we can 
     actually make progress on the ground.''
       Loggers--who sat with Rehberg on another of the roundtable 
     panels--emphasized that there will be no consensus unless the 
     discussion and decisions are local.
       ``To manage our national forests from an office back East 
     is unacceptable,'' said Liles, who works at Smurfit-Stone 
     Container Corp.'s Frenchtown linerboard plant. ``The national 
     folks don't have to experience the economic devastation their 
     policies cause. They don't know us or our geography. We have 
     very good people right here in Missoula, Montana, in the 
     Forest Service. We need to allow them to do their jobs.''
       Hurst told Rehberg that federal land management policies 
     have bankrupted his community and broken its spirit. 
     ``Eureka, Montana, is going broke,'' he said. Earlier this 
     month, he laid off 40 percent of his employees.
       Local management works, Hurst said. ``Look at Alberta, the 
     most prosperous piece of real estate in North America. Why is 
     that? Why is Alberta so prosperous when Montana is the 
     Appalachian West? The key there is the province has all the 
     control over the natural resources. The local people have 
     control.''
       Sherm Anderson, who owns Sun Mountain Logging Co., told 
     Rehberg he could help by educating people back East about 
     forests and how they live and grow and die. ``If I were king 
     and could change one thing, it would be the perception that 
     our forests--if we don't touch them--will stay the same 
     forever,'' he said.
       ``You can't legislate perception,'' Rehberg said.
       ``But if people could understand how a forest operates,'' 
     Anderson said, ``maybe we could get some intelligence back 
     into our national forest management.''
       Forest Service officials were not invited to participate in 
     any of the day's roundtable talks, but several sat in the 
     audience of more than 100 people who crowded around Rehberg 
     and the panelists to listen. And Maggie Pittman, a 
     spokeswoman for the agency's Northern Region office in 
     Missoula, asked Rehberg to include agency officials next time 
     around.
       ``We are thrilled that Denny Rehberg is holding this 
     forum,'' Pittman said later. ``It's a wonderful way for Denny 
     and his staff to get up to speed fairly quickly. We would 
     have enjoyed a place at that table today. There are some 
     misperceptions that we would like to talk about, but also we 
     consider ourselves a key part of the conversation.
       ``Public land managers need to be part of the discussion 
     about public land management.''

                         Testimony of Kim Liles

       Representative Rehberg, ladies and gentlemen. I am happy to 
     be here with you today, to have an opportunity to express my 
     concerns and that of my co-workers regarding our ability to 
     continue to earn a living in the natural resource based 
     industries.
       I am a member of The Pulp and Paperworkers' Resource 
     Council, a grassroots organization representing over 350,000 
     workers in the pulp and paper, solid wood manufacturing and 
     related industries. I am also employed by Smurfit-Stone 
     Container and I am a member of Hellgate Local 8-0885 PACE 
     International Union.
       First of all let me say that I am an environmentalist like 
     I hope everyone in this room is. I share everyone's concern 
     for the health and conservation of our natural resources, our 
     environment and the beauty of our state. I hope that just 
     because I am employed in the timber industry, people don't 
     assume I want to destroy the environment, or degrade our 
     environmental controls. I most certainly do not and neither 
     do those I work with and for. We all enjoy this great state 
     and most of us are outdoorsmen, Hunters, campers, mountain 
     bikers, snowmobilers and fishermen. We have a vested interest 
     in being good stewards of the land as much as anyone else.
       Today, America has 630 wilderness areas encompassing 102 
     million acres of land under federal control. The National 
     Forest System with 155 national forests, encompassing 200 
     million acres of land, has in the past been guided by the 
     concept of multiple use for sustained yield--a policy of wise 
     conservation. These uses have always included managed timber 
     harvesting, recreation of all sorts, including skiing, 
     fishing, hunting, camping, snowmobiling and others. These 
     forests have also at the same time been managed for wildlife 
     and the environment.
       I as well as my co-workers and others involved in natural 
     resource based industries are deeply concerned with the 
     management of our public lands. To manage our National 
     Forests and public lands from an office back east, by the 
     stroke of a pen is unacceptable. These people do not have to 
     live with outcome of their actions. We can be better served 
     by people here locally and on the State level. They are in 
     touch with the needs of the area and have the know how, 
     ability and a vested interest in being good Stewards of the 
     land as well.
       Whether we want to admit it or not this is about jobs, it's 
     about economies, families and communities. How many school 
     closures, plant shutdowns, and economically devastated 
     families and communities are we going to have to endure 
     before we come to the realization that in order to sustain an 
     economy, you have to produce a value added product somewhere 
     in the equation. You cannot sustaiin an economy with service-
     based jobs, tourism nor education, it doesn't work. You 
     cannot support a family on a $6.00 an hour job either.
       Montana used to be about 7th in the nation in average per 
     capita income. Today we are now 50th in that category. We are 
     however #1 in one area, that being heads of households 
     holding two jobs to support their families, a very sad 
     commentary.
       In Montana since 1989, over 17 mills have been shut down, 
     over 2,000 jobs have been eliminated. That is jobs in the 
     timber industry alone, that is not including mining jobs and 
     support industry jobs that have also been eliminated. The 
     cumulative effect of extreme environmental regulations, 
     regulatory rules and a smothering bureaucracy are having and 
     have had a negative impact on our States economy.
       I submit to you that we can have both, a vibrant economy 
     utilizing our natural resources, supplying good paying jobs 
     and a healthy and stable environment. We need to find that 
     balance. There is middle ground to be had here. Let common 
     sense be a part of any and all decisions we might make 
     regarding these issues.
       I am proud to say I'm a native Montanan and have lived here 
     all of my life. I can only hope my four children can also 
     have that opportunity. I see so many young people leaving our 
     state today to earn a living elsewhere simply because there 
     are no jobs that pay a living wage suitable for raising or 
     sustaining a family. What a sad truth that is.
       Again, we need to find the middle ground here. It seems the 
     pendulum has swung too far in one direction, believe me, I do 
     not want to see it go all the way in the other direction. We 
     need to stop it (the pendulum), in the middle. We can do 
     that, and we must do that.

     

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