[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3663-3672]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         CONTINUING RESOLUTION

  Mr. SMITH. Madam President, the role of the Federal Government is 
both a protagonist and an antagonist of Oregon, and what a desperate 
situation we are in. I say this because some have said to me that you 
cannot filibuster a continuing resolution, you will shut down the 
Government. My point back is that whatever it takes, maybe in getting 
the Federal Government to look over the abyss with me, it will 
understand how many Oregon counties are feeling at this critical hour.
  Senator Wyden and I are one on this issue. He is working the majority 
now, and I worked the majority in the 109th Congress. He will find it 
frustrating trying to get a focus on this issue that affects not just 
our State but so many others, but ours is affected disproportionately.
  The Federal Government owns 53 percent of Oregon and 57 percent of 
our timberlands. As you know, local communities cannot tax the Federal 
Government. So the deal that was cut back at the turn of the last 
century was that, in lieu of taxes, local communities would get 25 
percent of timber receipts and, with that, kids could go to school, 
neighborhoods could be safer, streets would be paved, and civilizations 
would be built in these timber-dependent, isolated areas, and you are 
talking about most of Oregon.
  So my call tonight is to lay out before the American people the 
plight, the history, and the reason for my arguing now on this bill and 
the next bill but, frankly, if the 110th Congress doesn't solve this on 
the continuing resolution, or on the emergency supplemental, the pink 
slips that have already gone out will turn red, and there will be 
tremendous damage done to rural Oregon, which is most of Oregon.
  So I pick up now, Madam President, where I was interrupted before by 
the needs of others and at the request of the majority leader:

       Think of railroads as the internet of America's Gilded Age 
     . . . a totally transforming technology . . . that allowed 
     people in the

[[Page 3664]]

     late 1800s to communicate and travel great distances faster, 
     cheaper, and more efficiently than ever before. Nowhere was 
     this transformation more profound than in the Pacific 
     Northwest.
       Prior to the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 
     1869, there were less than 130,000 American settlers residing 
     in all of the Oregon country, including the Washington and 
     Idaho territories. Communications were typically hand 
     delivered documents. To transport them across the country, 
     they first had to be carried to Missouri, probably by 
     riverboat or wagon, and then carted cross country to the 
     Pacific Coast.
       Alternatively, they could be delivered by boat from the 
     Atlantic Coast, sailing around the southern tip of South 
     America, then up the Pacific Coast; or, as a third option, 
     sailing from the Atlantic coast to Central America, crossing 
     over the mountains to the Pacific Ocean, loaded back on board 
     ship, and sailing up the Coast.
       However it was done, the trip was lengthy, dangerous and 
     expensive. Having the ability to ride a railroad from the 
     Atlantic to the Pacific changed America dramatically and 
     helped to stitch together a nation nearly torn asunder by a 
     horrific Civil War.
       Eastern railroads connected to Omaha, where the route to 
     the West began. The Union Pacific route more or less followed 
     the Oregon Trail west to Utah where it connected with the 
     Central Pacific, ultimately reaching San Francisco.
       Building the railroad, itself, transformed the West. 
     Congress enacted various ``land grant'' programs, selling off 
     vast amounts of land in the West, to both bring settlers and 
     raise money, to help finance construction. Many of these new 
     ``sodbusters'' were attracted west by the promise of cheap 
     farmland. They fenced and plowed the prairie to start their 
     farms. The railroads, in turn, hauled their crops to far away 
     cities, in so doing also transforming what Americans ate.
       As rail construction moved westward, crews and supplies 
     were constantly moved out to the end of the line, settling 
     there until the next section of road was completed. These new 
     towns were soon filled with a ``Wild West'' brood of 
     gunslingers, cardsharps, prostitutes, saloons and bordellos, 
     gathered to separate the construction crews from their wages.
       As the line moved further along, the railroad also moved 
     its supply stop. Some of the older towns left behind 
     survived, and a few even thrived, but most were abandoned. 
     Residents wanting to move to the next stop were loaded onto 
     railroad cars, along with their buildings, including the 
     saloons and bordellos, and hauled to the new end of the line, 
     giving birth to the expression ``Hell on wheels.''
       Even with completion of the transcontinental railroad, the 
     Pacific Northwest remained largely isolated. Supplies and 
     communications still needed to be packed in by wagon from the 
     nearest rail line in Utah, or brought by land or ship north 
     from San Francisco.
       Rivers were the highways of the Northwest, and Portland, 
     located near the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette 
     Rivers, became the gateway. Millions of dollars worth of gold 
     and silver poured through Portland on its way to San 
     Francisco from mines as far away as Montana and Idaho.
       Settlers quickly learned that the thick forests of the 
     Northwest could be logged, and much of the lumber, when 
     shipped south to California, created gold of its own.
       In 1859, when Oregon became the first Northwest state 
     admitted to the Union, Portland's population was less than 
     800 residents. Ten years later it had grown to nearly 10,000. 
     It all happened so fast that Portland became known as 
     ``Stumptown.'' Early residents logged the riverfront to 
     create the new town, not bothering to remove the stumps. 
     Instead, they simply painted them white, hoping they could be 
     seen in the dark.
       It didn't take long for Oregonians, and East Coast 
     financiers, to figure out that a railroad from Portland to 
     San Francisco could transform the Northwest economy, making a 
     lot of money along the way, for its builders.
       By 1866, two rail lines had started south from Portland, 
     one on the west side of the Willamette River, and the other 
     on the east side. Construction was very expensive. Neither 
     line had the financial wherewithal to make much progress. 
     Oregonians needed the deep pockets of Uncle Sam to help build 
     their railroad.
       The Union victory in the Civil War created a spending spree 
     in Congress. Taking advantage of this postwar exuberance, 
     Oregon Senator George H. Williams persuaded Congress to 
     authorize construction of a rail line from Portland to the 
     California border.
       ``The Oregon and California Land Grant Act of 1866'' 
     provided that railroad construction would be subsidized by a 
     grant of 5 million acres of public land in alternating 640 
     acre sections extending like a checkerboard for 10 miles on 
     each side of the proposed rail line.
       While the Act left it up to the Oregon Legislature to 
     decide who would build the railroad, it provided that the 
     United States Department of the Interior, through its General 
     Land Office, would sell the land to ``actual settlers'' in 
     plots no bigger than 160 acres, at a price no more than $2.50 
     per acre. The land turned out to be some of the richest 
     timberland in the world.
       That kind of government largesse naturally brought out less 
     than the best in business and political interests. It wasn't 
     long before the railroads were dominating the state 
     legislature. Since, at that time, legislatures still selected 
     U.S. Senators, Sen. Williams was soon replaced.
       Previously proving his worth to the railroads as President 
     of the Oregon State Senate, [Senator John Mitchell] would 
     represent Oregon as U.S. Senator, off and on, for the next 20 
     years. During his entire time in public office, Mitchell was 
     also on the payroll, as legal counsel, to both the Northern 
     Pacific and the O&C Railroads. He was known to boast that 
     what the railroads wanted, he wanted.
       Williams, suddenly retired as Oregon's Senator, did not 
     return directly to Oregon. Instead, he was appointed Attorney 
     General by recently elected President Ulysses Grant.
       He served in that capacity for six years until an opening 
     occurred as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and 
     Grant nominated his Oregon friend for the job.
       Unfortunately for Williams, the national railroad scandals 
     then rocking Congress, combined with increasing rumors of 
     things not being quite what they should in Oregon, convinced 
     the Senate not to confirm Williams. He returned to Portland 
     to practice law, and ultimately was elected Mayor of the 
     growing city.
       Even with the O&C land grants, railroad promoters went 
     broke several times before construction was finally completed 
     20 years later. By this time, the O&C Railroad was a part of 
     the Southern Pacific line. The driving of the mandatory 
     ``golden spike'' near Ashland, Oregon in 1887 linked Portland 
     to San Francisco at last.
       To help pay for the lengthy construction, the federal 
     government, through the Interior Department's General Land 
     Office, had been selling off 160 acre parcels of the O&C 
     lands to all comers, regardless of whether they were ``actual 
     settlers'', as the law required.
       ``Doing a land office business'' took on a rather dubious 
     meaning in Oregon, as land speculators hauled drunks out of 
     saloons and sailors off ships, delivering them to the 
     Government Land Office to claim a piece of federal land. The 
     new ``owners'' then transferred their deed to the 
     speculators, sometimes for as little as a bottle of whiskey, 
     all with the Land Office approval.
       In the process more than 3 million acres were fraudulently 
     looted from Oregon's public domain.
       Rumors of the O&C land fraud soon began circulating in the 
     nation's capitol, but it wasn't until Teddy Roosevelt entered 
     the White House in 1901 that the federal government 
     responded.
       Special investigators were sent by the President to Oregon 
     in 1903, where they were met with intense hostility from 
     Oregon's political and business community. The railroad and 
     logging interests attempted to stonewall the investigators, 
     but a series of damning articles, published by crusading 
     editor Harvey Scott of the Portland Oregonian, finally 
     exposed the fraud.
       The federal investigators soon returned 1,032 indictments, 
     including Senator Mitchell, several Oregon Congressmen, U.S. 
     Attorney's, GLO officials, judges, mayors, lawyers and 
     businessmen. When the cases went to trial in 1905, they were 
     pared down to 35 of the chief culprits, of whom 34 were 
     convicted, including Senator Mitchel1. He died at age 70 
     before being sent to prison.
       Just as completion of the railroad transformed the 
     Northwest economy, the land scandal transformed its politics, 
     creating a populist foundation which can still be felt.
       Led by political reform groups such as the farm-based 
     Grange, the ``Oregon System'' was enacted by the Oregon 
     Legislature, calling for the direct election of U.S. 
     Senators, and public oversight of Legislative Acts. Voters 
     could decide public issues at the ballot box, with measures 
     to initiate laws (initiative), repeal legislative acts 
     (referendum), or even remove officeholders (recall).
       Within a decade the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution 
     was adopted nationwide, requiring the direct election of all 
     U.S. Senators, and the initiative, referendum and recall 
     became the state standard for political reform.
       After the spectacular trials of 1905, the federal 
     government acted to take back the valuable O&C timberlands, 
     now owned by the Southern Pacific, but the Railroad fought 
     back in court. The battle raged in the courts until 1915 when 
     the Supreme Court ruled for the government.
       The following year, Congress set up an ``O&C'' account, 
     funded by timber sales off the lands, to reimburse the 
     Southern Pacific for the lands the federal government had 
     taken back, and to provide funds to the O&C Counties where 
     the lands were located.
       It wasn't until the depression years that Oregon's Senator 
     Charles McNary turned the O&C lands golden. Senator McNary 
     had become the Republican Minority Leader of the Senate in 
     1933, at the beginning of President Franklin Roosevelt's 
     second term.
       Over martini's at the White House, the Republican Senator 
     and the Democrat President sorted out their differences and 
     agreed on significant legislation beneficial to the 
     Northwest, including federal help for farmers, the creation 
     of the Bonneville Power Administration, the International 
     Pacific

[[Page 3665]]

     Salmon Fisheries Act, and the O&C Lands Sustained-Yield Act, 
     all enacted by 1937.
       The new O&C Act transformed federal funding for the 18 
     Oregon counties home to the O&C lands, and Oregon's golden 
     goose was born. The Act created the Bureau of Land Management 
     in the Department of the Interior, out of the ashes of the 
     old General Land Office, and directed the BLM to harvest 
     timber off the O&C Lands, on a sustained yield basis, with an 
     unprecedented 75 percent of the receipts from the timber 
     sales being returned to the O&C counties.
       At one of those White House visits, Roosevelt, in 
     anticipation of his run for a third term in 1940, suggested 
     McNary should be his Vice-Presidential running mate on a 
     ``Unity Party'' platform. McNary declined and was later 
     nominated by the Republicans to run as their Vice 
     Presidential candidate with corporate attorney Wendell 
     Willkie at the head of the GOP ticket.
       With the post war building boom in the 1950s, the O&C 
     revenues were pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into 
     Oregon's cash starved rural counties, funding schools and 
     other local projects. The golden goose had become the 
     touchstone of Oregon politics.
       Oregon's Mark Hatfield championed the O&C lands as 
     governor, and used the issue to help get elected to the 
     Senate in 1966. As he gained power on the Senate 
     Appropriations Committee, Hatfield became the guardian of 
     Oregon's unique golden goose.

  Madam President, that is a brief history of the O&C lands--one that 
will become more consequential later in my statement, when I 
specifically discuss county payments safety net.
  The fundamental point I am trying to make is that between the 
national forests and the O&C lands, the Federal Government holds 57 
percent of Oregon's standing timber. Yet the Federal Government 
contributes less than 7 percent to the State's total timber harvest. 
This was not always the case.
  The history of my State, as well as its current predicament, is 
closely tied to the harvest of timber, of ``green gold.'' Atop our 
State capitol in Salem stands a 23-foot gold-gilded pioneer, an ax 
proudly in his hand.
  In 1909, the Oregon State Board of Forestry described my State's 
timber wealth as follows:

       Beyond question, the greatest national endowment of Oregon 
     is the unsurpassed wealth stored up in the forests of the 
     State.
       Oregon has approximately 300 billion feet of standing 
     merchantable timber. This is not an idle guess, but it is the 
     average of the estimate of government officials, cruisers, 
     and timber experts who have traversed the entire State and 
     made the matter a thorough study. This is a much greater 
     amount than is possessed by any other State in the Union and 
     is nearly one-sixth of the total amount of standing 
     merchantable timber in the United States. It is noteworthy 
     that this immense amount of timber is found on an area which 
     is only 57 percent of the area of the State. The value of 
     this body of timber is twofold; first, as a source of lumber 
     supply; second, as a factor in the maintenance of a perpetual 
     flow of water in the streams and rivers of the State, by 
     retarding the melting of the snow and holding a continuous 
     supply of moisture in the ground during the summer months.
       Commercially, the value of the standing timber of Oregon, 
     when manufactured into lumber and sold at the rate of $12 per 
     thousand, would be $3.6 billion, a sum in excess of the total 
     amount of currency in the United States at the present time.

  Amazing. At current lumber prices, the value of this standing timber 
would be $150 billion in stumpage value alone. But in the early years 
of Oregon country, timber was not a primary commodity, it was 
considered a nuisance and a detriment to agriculture. Trading companies 
such as the Hudson's Bay Company harvested Oregon's wealth from its 
fur-bearing animals, such as the beaver--the State animal of Oregon and 
the mascot of our land grant college, Oregon State University. Go 
Beavs! But as time rolled on, the settlers of Oregon country sought a 
new source of wealth in the lush virgin forest all around them. 
Oregonians made great strides into turning trees into 2 by 4s. The 
first power-driven sawmill was built in 1836, 23 years before our 
statehood. The first commercial production of Douglas fir plywood was 
invented in St. John's, OR, by the Autzen family. That name is now 
familiarly associated with the University of Oregon football stadium. 
Go Ducks!
  The single most important invention affecting logging was the 
chainsaw of 1935. It was not invented in Oregon, but it was perfected 
in Oregon. In 1947, a lumberjack named ``Joseph Cox'' invented chainsaw 
teeth. Joe was chopping firewood one chilly autumn day in 1946, when he 
paused for a moment to examine the curious activity in a tree stump. A 
timber beetle larva the size of a man's forefinger was easily chewing 
its way through sound timber, going both across and through the wood 
grain at will.
  Joe was an experienced operator of the gas-powered saws used in those 
days, but the cutting chain was the problem. It required a lot of 
filing and maintenance time. He said: I spent several months looking 
for nature's answer to the problem. I found it in the larva of the 
timber beetle.
  Joe knew if he could duplicate the larva's alternating C-shaped jaws 
in steel, it might catch on. He went to work in the basement shop of 
his Portland, OR, home and came up with a revolutionary new chain. The 
first Cox Chipper Chain was produced and sold in November 1947. The 
basic design of Joe's original chain is still widely used today and 
represents one of the biggest influences in the history of timber 
harvesting.
  In 1907, there were 173 sawmills in Oregon, but with new and improved 
chainsaws in the woods, came equally impressive sawmills. C.A. Smith 
Lumber and Manufacturing Company built the Nation's largest sawmill in 
Coos Bay. Coos Bay also became the largest lumber-exporting port in the 
world. The world's largest pine lumber factory was built by 
Weyerhaeuser in Klamath Falls, south of the Winema National Forest.
  By 1929, there were 608 lumber mills, 5 paper mills, 64 planing 
mills, and 47 furniture factories in Oregon. By 1947, Oregon had 1,573 
lumber mills turning out more than 7 million board feet.
  Timber also served as a national strategic interest. The Federal 
Government built its own sawmill in Toledo, OR, to harvest spruce trees 
for airplane manufacturing during World War I.
  During World War II, Oregon had the unfortunate distinction of 
receiving the first mainland aerial bombing. On September 9, 1942, a 
Japanese pilot flew over the Oregon coast, with the intention of 
dropping a firebomb on the thick forest and causing a massive fire, 
shocking Americans and diverting resources from fighting the war to 
fighting fire. Once over forested land, the pilot released the bomb, 
which struck leaving a crater about 3 feet in diameter and 1 foot deep.
  In 1944, Japan launched over 9,000 firebomb balloons over the Pacific 
Ocean. Once again, the goal was to start forest fires in Oregon and 
wreak havoc. The most tragic incident involving balloon bombs also 
found a place in history as yielding the only deaths due to enemy 
action on mainland America during World War II.
  The events unfolded on May 5, 1945, as a pastor and his wife took 
five children for a picnic on a beautiful spring day east of Bly, OR. I 
should note that a few years ago, Mr. President, the Federal 
authorities thwarted al-Qaida plans to build a jihadist training camp 
in Bly, OR. But back in 1944, Rev. Archie Mitchell parked his car near 
Bly, and he heard his pregnant wife call out: Look what I found, dear.
  One of the children tried to remove the balloon from a tree and 
triggered the bomb. The force of the blast immediately filled the air 
with dust, pine needles, twigs, branches, and dead logs. The entire 
family was killed.
  During World War II, private timberlands, not Federal, fueled the war 
effort. This was necessary because they had roads and quick access to 
timber that was needed to help win the war. Lumber producers also had 
implicit assurances from the Federal Government that Federal forests 
would open up after the war. As Associate Forest Service Chief Sally 
Collins recently stated:

       Post-World War II, the Forest Service entered a new period 
     characterized, in large part, by timber production. From the 
     1960s to the 1980s, every administration, with strong 
     congressional support, called for more timber harvest from 
     the national forests, with the goal of replacing the depleted 
     stocks of private and State timber as a result of the war 
     effort. At its peak in 1987, the national forests provided 
     close to 30 percent of the Nation's timber supply.

  The bulk of the wood came from Federal lands in Oregon. Postwar 
timber harvest on Federal land alone in my

[[Page 3666]]

State oscillated between 4 and 5 billion feet per year--enough wood to 
build nearly 300,000 homes. The revenues from these harvests energized 
rural Oregon, not to mention the Federal Treasury, since 75 percent of 
the proceeds came right here and were deposited in Washington, DC.
  It was a win-win and in the spirit of the Federal Government acting 
in the aide, not the ailment, of the States united under its banner. It 
was the same spirit in which Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated the 
Bonneville Dam on the mighty Columbia River. Said he at the time:

       The responsibility of the Federal Government for the 
     welfare of its citizens will not come from the top in the 
     form of unplanned hit or miss appropriations of money, but 
     will progress to the national capital from the ground up, 
     from the communities and counties and States which lie within 
     each of the logical geographical areas.

  The timber industry built itself literally from the ground up and is 
a living legacy in Oregon to this day. Back cuts and board feet, 
buckers and fellers, chokers and cruisers, skidders and slashers, 
springboards and spring poles and widow-makers, these are terms still 
heard in the woods, in smokey bars, and in Forest Service rigs all 
across Oregon.
  The great Johnny Cash once wrote a song about Roseburg, OR, the 
timber capital of the world. In spoken word, on his ``Ride this Train'' 
album, the ``man in black'' said this:

       Ride this train to Roseburg, Oregon, now there's a town for 
     you; and you talk about rough, you know a lot of places in 
     the country claim Paul Bunyon lived there; but you should 
     have seen Roseburg when me and my daddy'd come there; every 
     one of them loggers looked like Paul Bunyon to me; as I was a 
     skinny kid about 16 and I was scared to death when we walked 
     into that camp; none of the lumberjacks paid any attention to 
     me at first; but when my pa told the boss that me and him 
     wanted a job; a lot of 'em stopped their work to see what was 
     gonna happen; that big boss walked around me, looked me up 
     and down, and said, Mister, I believe that boy is made out of 
     second growth timber, and I guess I was. Everybody but me and 
     my pa had a big laugh over it. Pa got kinda mad and the boss 
     finally said he might start me out as a high climber--I 
     didn't know what a high climber was. Boy, I sure learned 
     fast. That steel corded rope cut my back, and that ax, I 
     thought it was gonna break my arms off, but I stuck with it. 
     It wasn't long till I learned a man's got to be a lot tougher 
     than the timber he's cuttin'. Finally I could swing that 
     crosscut saw with the best of them.

  Country singers were not the only artists to embrace Oregon's logging 
heritage. Ken Kesey might be known to some of my colleagues as the 
author of ``One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.'' Oregonians know Ken 
Kesey as one of their own--a countercultural figure, bridging the gap 
between the beatniks of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s.
  Kesey's second novel, ``Sometimes a Great Notion,'' tells of a 
hardheaded Oregon logging family hacking a family wage out of the 
woods. I would read some of that work, but in the interest of getting 
through this 5-hour speech in an hour, I will save that for another 
day. His work does personify the pride, passion, and perseverance of 
the Oregon logger and the Oregon spirit itself.
  Kesey's words vividly describe the back-breaking work of logging, 
seen through the eyes of a long-lost brother from the east coast. In 
the nonfiction world, another east coast brother--``Big Brother,'' if 
you will--would break the back of Oregon's logging industry.
  (Mr. Sanders assumed the Chair.)
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. SMITH. I will yield.
  Mr. WYDEN. Through the Chair, I would like to pose a couple of 
questions to my colleague making an important speech.
  I have been attending a lot of town meetings across the State, and I 
know my colleague is attending some as well. What is your sense of how 
dire the situation is at home? When I talk to people, you get the sense 
this is a real lifeline, and I think it would be helpful if you could 
lay out exactly that sense of urgency you are picking up at home.
  Mr. SMITH. My response is the same as the Senator's. It is a sense of 
abandonment, a sense of betrayal, a sense that the Federal Government 
made a deal, changed the terms, and now is welching on the deal.
  That is why I am here giving the history of this State, trying to 
share with my colleagues some of the feeling, the history, the blood, 
sweat, and tears that went into building Oregon and why the Federal 
Government needs to be the protagonist for Oregon again, not the 
antagonist.
  So that would be my answer. They feel like the Federal Government 
gave its word and needs to keep it.
  Mr. WYDEN. Again, through the Chair, Mr. President, would it be my 
colleague's sense that at home the kinds of services that are on the 
line are not exactly what the people call the extras? We are talking 
about law enforcement. We are talking about schools.
  I know the Senator shares a long friendship with Sheriff Mike 
Winters, for example, of southern Oregon, and he has told me the kinds 
of cutbacks we have seen in law enforcement are extraordinary, such as 
involving the effort to fight methamphetamines.
  What is your sense of the kinds of services we would see go by the 
boards if this program is not sustained?
  Mr. SMITH. Well, Senator, I have spoken to it at the beginning, in 
the middle, and at the end of this, the kinds of things you are asking, 
the kinds of services that will be jeopardized or the kinds of services 
every American citizen expects local communities to provide. Most 
communities provide them through property taxes, local levies of some 
kind that keep our teachers, our policemen, our roads paved, health 
services, and more. These are the kinds of things which are the 
cornerstone of what we would call ``civilization'' in rural places.
  It is that and more. We could go looking at program after program 
that, if the Federal Government welches on its bargain, are the kinds 
of services that will be lost to Oregon because Oregon is over half 
owned by the Federal Government. It is real simple. Time is up, and the 
deal needs to be kept.
  Mr. WYDEN. Continuing through the Chair, Mr. President, isn't it 
correct, I ask my colleague, that members of our delegation, of both 
political parties, have suggested alternatives for funding this 
program? For example, our whole delegation to a person was very 
troubled about this idea of selling off our treasures because not only 
was that not morally right, clearly it would have no prospect whatever 
of passing in the Senate. So I know our colleague in the other body who 
represents the eastern part of our State had some good ideas, and our 
colleague in the other body from southwestern Oregon had some good 
ideas. It seems to me--and I think it would be helpful if you could 
bring the Senate up to date--that both Democrats and Republicans have 
been trying to work in good faith for ideas that would responsibly fund 
this program. I think it would be helpful to have my colleague's 
reaction on that.
  Mr. SMITH. The Senator is exactly right. There has been virtually 
nothing taken off the table. The administration made a proposal for 
funding this that had difficulties with our delegation, in selling off 
public lands or other forest land. To me, the offset ought to be the 
word of the United States, and ultimately the funding source is really 
the American Treasury because the American Treasury gains so much from 
Oregon, owns over half of Oregon, and contributes 7 percent to its 
local governments. So you are absolutely right. There have been many 
suggestions made. I have supported virtually all of them to try to 
break through this logjam that we find in Congress. It has been a labor 
of the greatest frustration for this Senator, and I know for you.
  Now we have traded sides as to who is in the majority and who is in 
the minority. My recourse in the minority is to do what I am doing, and 
that is to look for every opportunity I can to speak for Oregon, to 
slow down the Federal Government if necessary to get the Federal 
Government to understand its obligation.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, one last question, if I might, for my 
colleague. I appreciate his point with respect to the alternatives 
because the administration offered a proposal, a selloff of

[[Page 3667]]

national treasures. I and others thought that was wrong. We went to 
work. Our colleagues came up with alternatives. Senator Baucus and I 
found an example in an area where Government contractors were not 
paying taxes in a prompt way. There were questions about whether it 
made sense, at least in the administration. Then they went off and took 
the revenues.
  I think your point about how Democrats and Republicans have brought 
alternatives with respect to how to pay for this program in the 
Congress is an important one.
  The last one I would like to have you lay out for the Senate is that 
I want Senators to know that this is not some exercise on our part, in 
terms of just plucking an arbitrary figure out of the air and saying: 
By God, this is the money that we want for our State. As I understand 
the presentation of the Senator, you are trying to lay out the history.
  Mr. SMITH. I am.
  Mr. WYDEN. The history goes back to the beginning of the last 
century, essentially. Because the Federal Government owns more than 
half of our land, we historically received payments for essential 
services--schools, police and the like--that were based on timber 
receipts. Now that the environmental laws have changed, those funds are 
not there.
  So, as I understand it, the presentation that my colleague is making 
today is based on the idea that this is not about Oregon's seeking some 
kind of arbitrary figure that we basically would like to offer up as 
kind of a wish list or to try to get through because we will try to 
bull it through, but that it is really based on history. It is based on 
a historical formula that stems from the fact that the Federal 
Government owns most of the land. Is that essentially the kind of 
historical viewpoint that my colleague is trying to bring to the 
Senate?
  Mr. SMITH. Absolutely. I will be making it several more times in this 
presentation--5 hours condensed into an hour and a half, I suppose. But 
when you and Senator Craig first cut the deal--and I was an original 
cosponsor with you--you had to have a basis for the money, the formula 
for distributing it. You all wisely came up with what is the historical 
timber harvest on Federal lands. That made sense. It makes logical 
sense. It is defensible. Now some of our neighboring Senators don't 
like that deal anymore. They want to change that. They would like to 
ignore that history, but that is the basis of the formula for these 
secure county schools payments. It is literally replacing the money 
lost from the way Oregon historically operated in collaboration with 
the Federal Government. The terms were changed. The terms were changed 
in the 1990s.
  There is a cost to not harvesting timber. The rest of the country 
wants us not to harvest timber, but there is a cost to not doing that, 
and the cost is borne by humans, by local governments. I think it is a 
dastardly thing on the Federal Government's part to walk away from this 
now, for it to change the terms and not care for the people impacted by 
that.
  Mr. WYDEN. One last question, if I might, Mr. President. Also, let me 
also tell the Senate we are very pleased that the Senator from Vermont 
has joined the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He is going to 
hear us talking an awful lot in the committee about the county payments 
legislation, but I just want to say tonight in the Senate I am very 
pleased the Senator from Vermont has come to the Senate, and we are 
glad to have him on the committee.
  The last question I would pose to my colleague deals, again, with the 
urgency of all of this, so the Senate is clear on this. I think there 
is always a sense that sometimes you come to the floor and there is a 
little bit of an alarmist kind of approach.
  My understanding is in our home State, from county officials, there 
are pink slips going out now. There are budgets that are being made now 
that are going to be very hard to alter. I appreciate my colleague's 
presentation over the last bit, and I enjoyed the earlier one as well, 
and I felt it was an important presentation.
  What exactly is taking place? So the Senate is up on this in terms of 
county budgets, layoff notices, and the kind of pain--that is what this 
is really all about, the pain we are seeing working families and 
citizens going through--what exactly is taking place as these budget 
choices are being made?
  Mr. SMITH. The Senator is exactly right in his description of the 
local pain and the bewilderment of many public employees who work in 
the counties and need to make mortgage payments, want their kids 
educated, and would like their neighborhoods kept safe. They are 
getting pink slips as we speak.
  This act expired in September of last year. The money runs out in 
June. The last two vehicles you and I have to fix this is the CR or the 
emergency supplemental. My good friend, my senior colleague, is doing 
exactly what I was doing when I was in the majority, and that is 
meeting with chairmen, meeting with the leader, describing the 
intensity of the problem and the moral importance of this for the 
Federal Government to keep its word. It was an experience in great 
frustration.
  Now I am in the minority, and I am left to stall, throw wrenches in 
the works, make the moral case. I will continue to do that. You and I, 
as we have done since our earliest days in the Senate, will work in 
tandem because, when it comes to Oregon's interests, between Senator 
Wyden and myself, politics stop at the State border. This is a perfect 
example of it. We have two shots.
  Mr. WYDEN. I thank my colleague for his presentation. I hope the 
entire Senate followed this discussion--that our whole country does.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. SMITH. In 1976, shortly after the Endangered Species Act became 
law, an Oregon State graduate student named Eric Forsman published a 
master's thesis.
  It surmised that the spotted owls of Oregon were ``declining as a 
result of habitat loss.'' The study caused a sensation among the 
environmental community, which was looking for an Endangered Species 
test case.
  By 1988, the environmental activists had defined their battle--to 
preserve, ``old growth forests.'' In their own words, these activists 
needed a ``surrogate'' species--one that lived in and needed old growth 
for its habitat. At a law clinic in 1988, one activist stated:

       Thanks to the work of Walt Disney, and Bambi and his 
     friends . . . wildlife enjoys substantive statutory 
     protection. While the northern spotted owl is the wildlife 
     species of choice to act as the surrogate for old growth 
     protection, and I've often thought ``thank goodness the 
     spotted owl evolved in the Northwest, for if it hadn't we'd 
     have to genetically engineer it.'' It's a perfect species for 
     use as a surrogate. First of all, it is unique to old growth 
     forests. And there's no credible scientific dispute on that 
     fact. Second of all, it uses a lot of old growth. That's 
     convenient because we can use it to protect a lot of old 
     growth.

  And ``convenient'' it was to those seeking to end timber harvest in 
Oregon. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service was forced to 
review the status of the spotted owl in 1982 and again in 1987.
  In both instances it found that a listing under the Endangered 
Species Act was not warranted. In 1986, an Audubon Society report 
stated that the spotted owl population was teetering toward the 
doomsday number of 1500 pairs.
  Further reviews by the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1989 and 1990 
proposed that it should be listed as threatened throughout its range--
northern California, Oregon and Washington.
  By 1989, environmental litigants had secured a court injunction on 
BLM timber sales near spotted owl sites. My predecessor, Senator Mark 
Hatfield, and Senator Brock Adams of Washington intervened that same 
year.
  They passed what was called the ``Northwest Compromise''--also known 
as the ``section 318 rider.'' This rider required the BLM and Forest 
Service to map out ecologically significant old growth stands for 
interim protection, while insulating federal timber sales outside those 
areas from litigation challenges.
  I would like to read from a floor statement Senator Hatfield gave 
that year:

       For those who like to isolate themselves in a little cocoon 
     and talk about theoretical

[[Page 3668]]

     and esoteric subjects, let us not forget we are talking about 
     human problems. That leads back to a common denominator which 
     is the adequacy or inadequacy to house human beings. There 
     may come a time when we will have to opt for a choice between 
     an owl and a human being, but let me tell you in this 
     proposal today we do not have to make that choice.
       We have opted to continue studying the owl as a threatened 
     species, and there is nothing in this report that in any way 
     impinges upon the Endangered Species Act. But at the same 
     time we are sensitive to human need. In my 30 years as a 
     governor and Senator, I have often found myself in the eye of 
     the storm when I have been accused by some of trying to 
     preserve too much of our natural resources for posterity, 
     including seashores, including the Columbia River Gorge, 
     including wild and scenic rivers and including wilderness.
       On the other hand, I often find myself in the eye of the 
     storm from those representing the environmental community who 
     think somehow we have sacrificed the spotted owl for timber 
     production.
       Mr. President, the facts will not bear that out. I think 
     sometimes that striking the balance is the most impossible 
     political stance to take. It is far easier to line up with 
     one side or the other. To try to strike a balance in anyone 
     of these controversial areas, particularly as it represents 
     economic and human need on one side and they need to preserve 
     unique areas of our God-created Earth on the other, is very 
     difficult. I fear that too often we are adopting the single-
     issue mentality that bubbles up to the top in many of these 
     groups today.
       When you subscribe to that single-issue mentality, it is 
     not what you have done in the past or what you are trying to 
     do for the future; it is how you cross the t's and dot the 
     i's today, and it is a dogmatic mind that is very difficult 
     to try to find any kind of accommodation. Thank goodness, I 
     think that the minds of balance and the minds of many of 
     these people in both groups prevailed and made this 
     compromise possible.
       So I want to say, Mr. President, we have made great 
     movement in trying to accommodate those from the 
     environmental community who have raised legitimate issues and 
     concerns.
       Unfortunately, according to many of the statements coming 
     out of that community, it is not enough. On the other hand, 
     when I face in my State 70 communities that are totally 
     dependent on a 1- or 2-mill economy, I can say this: I look 
     forward not with anything but anxiety and concern that we are 
     going to see some of those communities so deeply impacted 
     that I may have to repeat an experience I had in Valsetz, OR.
       On that occasion I gave the last high school commencement. 
     Instead of the usual smiles and laughter at such an event, 
     there were tears and sadness in the faces of the members of 
     that small timber-dependent community whose mill had recently 
     closed. In 2 weeks the bulldozers came in, and today there is 
     not a sign left of community life because we are now finding 
     the underbrush taking over.
       We face that reality in our State. It is awfully easy for 
     people from other States to say, oh, well we have to do this 
     and that. But I have to concern myself with representing the 
     people who have to put bread on the table of their children, 
     and to cut it off abruptly, without any consideration for the 
     human needs, to me, is cruelty.
       If we want to reduce our timber sales level by half, all 
     right. But let us have a prospective goal, and give time to 
     re-train those employees, give time to readjust those 
     communities, give time to those human needs, but to do it as 
     proposed by various members of the environmental community is 
     to do it without human concern.

  Following Senator Hatfield's action in the Senate, the House 
Agriculture Committee ordered the creation of a team of scientists--
forest experts--to analyze and report on the management of old growth 
forests within the range of the spotted owl.
  This group came to be known as the ``Gang of Four.'' Their report 
found that the amount and distribution of old growth forests in the 
Pacific Northwest was insufficient to support both current timber 
harvest level and the viability of the spotted owl.
  The Gang of Four presented 14 management alternatives, from the 
status quo to massive set asides of old growth reserves.
  Congress considered many of these alternatives, but acted on none of 
them.
  In 1990, the hammer finally fell. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
formally listed the northern spotted owl as ``threatened'' under the 
Endangered Species Act.
  A federal court soon ordered the agency to declare critical habitat 
for the spotted owl in western Oregon and Washington and northern 
California. A spotted owl recovery team was appointed in 1992.
  The year that the spotted owl was listed, 1990, Time Magazine ran 
this cover story.
  It read:

                           Who Gives a Hoot?

       The timber industry says that saving this spotted owl will 
     cost 30,000 jobs. It isn't that simple.
  When this story ran, the Senator from Tennessee, Mr. Gore, came to 
this floor to with the magazine in hand.
  The distinguished Senator stated:

       Why would Time magazine do a cover story on the spotted 
     owl, to say it is not that simple? Because the issue has been 
     misunderstood, and it is not that simple.

  Well, Senator Gore and Time Magazine were right. The battle between 
loggers and owls wasn't that simple. The economic fallout under the 
forthcoming Clinton-Gore administration would be far worse. And despite 
draconian federal actions, the owl would not be saved.
  Following the ESA listing of the spotted owl, biologists and 
foresters within the federal government began their own war with each 
other. With critical habitat in place, the Fish and Wildlife Service 
warned the BLM that its planned timber sales would jeopardize the 
survival of the spotted owl.
  In October 1991, Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan convened the 
Endangered Species Committee--also known as the ``God Squad.'' The God 
Squad consisted of three cabinet-level appointees and one 
representative from the State of Oregon. They convened a month of 
evidentiary hearings in Portland, OR with 97 witnesses.
  The God Squad decided to exempt several of the BLM's timber sales 
from ESA guidelines, while also requiring the agency to implement the 
draft spotted owl recovery plan in other areas.
  Without a final recovery plan, however, litigants seized the 
opportunity to shut down the remaining timber sales. Blanket 
injunctions were issued by Federal courts in 1991 and 1992, finally 
bringing western Oregon's Federal timber program to a complete 
deadfall.
  This chart shows timber harvest on each of Oregon's thirteen National 
Forests. The Willamette National Forest alone was producing nearly a 
billion board feet of timber a year. By 1992, it was in a free-fall to 
near zero, where it remains today.
  Think of the economy. think of the human consequences. But maybe we 
saved the owl. We will get to that.
  Enter the presidential campaign between George Herbert Walker Bush 
and the Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton. Both candidates made 
numerous visits to the Pacific Northwest. Bush lamented to loggers the 
situation that had unfurled on his watch. Clinton promised labor unions 
that he would convene a ``forest summit'' to resolve the problem and 
end the gridlock.
  In April 1993, President Bill Clinton did just that--at least insofar 
as the ``summit.'' In Portland, OR the president convened his Vice-
President, Al Gore, along with the Secretaries of Agriculture, 
Interior, Labor, and Commerce, plus the EPA Administrator, the Deputy 
Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and his Science and 
Technology Advisor.
  At the conclusion of the eight-hour, televised summit, President 
Clinton announced a 60-day deadline by which his Cabinet would craft a 
plan to break the Pacific Northwest's forest impasse.
  He said that his goal was to develop a policy based on principles 
that would

       Produce a predictable and sustainable level of timber sales 
     that will not degrade or destroy our forest environment.

  That plan would come to be known as the ``Northwest Forest Plan.'' It 
called for the set aside of 88 percent of federal forests within the 
range of the spotted owl. The ``predictable and sustainable'' level of 
timber would come from the remaining 12 percent of the landscape. This 
amounted to 1.1 billion board feet a year--a 78 percent reduction from 
historic levels. But it was more than zero, which is what we had. So we 
were happy. We would get 1.1, even though there used to be 8 billion.
  In all honesty, both trenches in the timber war shirked at the 
Northwest Forest Plan. The timber industry did not want to codify such 
a dramatic drop in federal timber sales.

[[Page 3669]]

  Environmentalists objected to the fact that the Plan explicitly 
relied on some old growth harvest to meet its volume prediction.
  Nonetheless, the Northwest Forest Plan--and its equivalent in eastern 
Oregon, the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project--
became the law of the land, without a single vote in Congress. The Plan 
was implemented through administrative rulemaking and blessed by 
federal judges.
  Nonetheless, federal timber sales remained gridlocked in court. 
Harvest levels were still dropping. Mills were still closing. 
Unemployment lines were still growing. Oregon was no better off.
  The year Oregon cast its electoral ballots for Bill Clinton a second 
time, in 1996, it also elected to send me to the United States Senate.
  Holding the Clinton Administration to its own promise to Oregon was a 
primary directive from my constituents. And I did what I could.
  I pleaded with Clinton Administration officials to fully fund its own 
Northwest Forest Plan. It never did.
  I fought off efforts in this chamber to slash funding from the 
federal timber sale program. And the Senate never did.
  The time between 1996 and 2000 was a grueling and frustrating fight. 
While the president lamented the poverty in Appalachia, his 
administration was creating it in Oregon.
  It became obvious very quickly that the promise of the Clinton 
Northwest Forest Plan was a ruse--sabotaged by its own architects at 
every political turn.
  When George W. Bush took office in 2001, he agreed to make good on 
Bill Clinton's 1993 commitment. His administration has tried to fix the 
Northwest Forest Plan, to fund it and to implement it.
  Unfortunately, the current president's efforts have been stifled by 
federal courts.
  Northwest Forest Plan timber harvest under President Bush has been 
consistently lower than under President Clinton. And it has never risen 
above 30 percent of what Bill Clinton promised Oregon 13 years ago.
  These are the legal and political facts of the case. Let me take a 
moment to describe the human, social and economic casualties of the 
timber war.
  Between 1989 and 2003, 213 lumber mills in Oregon were closed, some 
permanently. I'd like to read you the list:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                      Employees
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Simpson Timber Co.....................  Albany.....................  Plywood...................          200
    Stone Forest Industries...............  Albany.....................  Sawmill...................          286
    Weyerhaeuser..........................  Albany.....................  Sawmill...................           39
    Willamette--Duraflake.................  Albany.....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
                                            Alicel.....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Croman Corporation....................  Ashland....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Astoria Plywood.......................  Astoria....................  Plywood...................          300
    Ellingson Lumber Co...................  Baker City.................  Sawmill...................          152
                                            Bandon.....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
                                            Beavercreek................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Crown Pacific.........................  Bend.......................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Weyerhaeuser..........................  Bend.......................  Particle board............          111
    Vanport Manufacturing.................  Boring.....................  Sawmill...................          180
                                            Carver.....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Cascade Cascade Locks Lumber..........  Cascade Locks..............  Sawmill...................           44
    Rough & Ready Lumber..................  Cave Junction..............  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Central Point Lumber..................  Central Point..............  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Double Dee Lumber.....................  Central Point..............  Sawmill...................           40
    Tree Source...........................  Central Point..............  Sawmill...................  ...........
                                            Chiloquin..................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Beaver Lumber.........................  Clatskanie.................  Sawmill...................           70
                                            Coburg.....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Coos Bay Mill.........................  Coos Bay...................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Weyerhaeuser..........................  Coos Bay...................  Sawmill...................          175
    Weverhaeuser--Dellwood Logging........  Coos Bay...................  Sawmill...................           40
    Georgia Pacific.......................  Coquille...................  Sawmill...................          340
    Brand-S Corporation...................  Corvallis..................  Sawmill...................            6
    Leading Plywood.......................  Corvallis..................  Plywood...................           46
    Midway Engineered Wood Products.......  Corvallis..................  Sawmill...................           50
    Superior Hardwoods....................  Corvallis..................  Sawmill...................           40
    Cascade Lumber........................  Cottage Grove..............  Sawmill...................           40
    Starflre Lumber Co....................  Cottage Grove..............  Sawmill...................           30
    Weverhaeuser..........................  Cottage Grove..............  Sawmill...................          235
    Cress Ply.............................  Creswell...................  Plywood...................           65
    Bohemia...............................  Culp Creek.................  Sawmill...................          225
                                            Cushman....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Diversified Fiber Corp................  Dairy......................  Sawmill...................           70
    Weyerhaeuser..........................  Dalles.....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Roseburg Forest Products..............  Dillard....................  Sawmill...................          275
    Roseburg Forest Products..............  Dillard....................  Plywood...................  ...........
                                            Dixonville.................  Sawmill...................  ...........
                                            Drain......................  Sawmill...................  ...........
                                            Eddyville..................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Boise Cascade.........................  Elgin......................  Stud Mill.................           37
    Boise Cascade.........................  Elgin......................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Great Western Pellet Mills............  Enterprise.................  Pellets...................           14
    Estacada Forest Products..............  Estacada...................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Cuddeback Lumber......................  Eugene.....................  Sawmill...................           75
    Falcon Manufacturing..................  Eugene.....................  Sawmill...................          120
    Seneca Sawmill........................  Eugene.....................  Sawmill...................           24
    Springfield Forest Products...........  Eugene.....................  Sawmill...................           60
    WTD Industries........................  Eugene.....................  Sawmill...................           55
    WTD Industries........................  Eugene.....................  Veneer....................           80
    Zip-O-Log Mills.......................  Eugene.....................  Sawmill...................           30
                                            Forest Grove...............  Sawmill...................  ...........
                                            Foster.....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    International Paper...................  Gardiner...................  P&P.......................  ...........
    Willamette--Bohemia...................  Gardiner...................  Sawmill...................          280
    Gregory Forest Products...............  Glendale...................  Plywood...................           25
    Gold Beach Plywood, Inc...............  Gold Beach.................  Plywood...................          315
    Cone Lumber Co........................  Goshen.....................  Sawmill...................           69
    Goshen Veneer.........................  Goshen.....................  Veneer....................           53
    Fourply Lumber........................  Grants Pass................  Sawmill...................          200
    Medford Corporation...................  Grants Pass................  Plywood...................          170
    U.S. Forest Industries................  Grants Pass................  Sawmill...................          200
    Spalding & Son........................  Grants Pass................  Sawmill...................          160
    Olympic Mill (Interforest)............  Gresham....................  Veneer....................           44
    WI--Cascade Logging...................  Griggs.....................  Sawmill...................           32
    DG Mouldings..........................  Harrisburg.................  Sawmill...................           95
    Noble & Bittner Plug Co...............  Hebo.......................  Sawmill...................           19
    Kinzua-Heppner Mill...................  Heppner....................  Sawmill...................          135
    Frontier Forest Products..............  Heppner....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Louisiana Pacific.....................  Hines......................  Sawmill...................          116
    Snow Mountain Pine Ltd................  Hines......................  Sawmill...................          260
    Hanel Lumber..........................  Hood River.................  Sawmill...................          138
    Green Veneer, Inc.....................  Idanha.....................  Veneer....................  ...........

[[Page 3670]]

 
                                            Idanha.....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Peacock Lumber Co.....................  Imbler.....................  Sawmill...................           25
    Mountain Fir..........................  Independence...............  Chip Mill.................           45
                                            Jasper.....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Malheur Lumber........................  John Day...................  Sawmill...................           30
    Boise Cascade.........................  Joseph.....................  Sawmill...................           52
    Joseph Timber.........................  Joseph.....................  Sawmill...................           70
    R-Y Timber, Inc.......................  Joseph.....................  Sawmill...................           68
    Junction City Lumber (WTD)............  Junction City..............  Sawmill...................          102
    Circle D..............................  Klamath Falls..............  Chip Mill.................  ...........
    Collins Products......................  Klamath Falls..............  Plywood...................  ...........
    Klamath Veneer........................  Klamath Falls..............  Veneer....................           50
    Modoc Lumber..........................  Klamath Falls..............  Sawmill...................          169
    Roseburg Forest Products..............  Klamath Falls..............  Sawmill...................          680
    Weyerhaeuser..........................  Klamath Falls..............  Sawmill...................  ...........
    American Precision Millwork...........  Lakeview...................  Sawmill...................           27
    Goose Lake Lumber.....................  Lakeview...................  Sawmill...................           60
    Lakeview Lumber.......................  Lakeview...................  Sawmill...................           60
                                            Langlois...................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Lebanon Mill..........................  Lebanon....................  ..........................  ...........
    White Plywood.........................  Lebanon....................  Plywood...................          180
    WI--Lebanon Plywood...................  Lebanon....................  Plywood...................          125
    Linnton Plywood.......................  Linnton....................  Plywood...................          235
    Blue Mountain Forest..................  Long Creek.................  Sawmill...................           20
                                            Madras.....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
                                            Mapleton...................  Sawmill...................  ...........
                                            Maupin.....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Boise Cascade.........................  Medford....................  Plywood...................          450
    Boise Cascade.........................  Medford....................  Veneer....................  ...........
    Pine Products.........................  Prineville.................  Sawmill...................           97
    Crown Pacific.........................  Prinville..................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Cascade Pine Specialties..............  Redmond....................  Sawmill...................           60
    Crown Pacific.........................  Redmond....................  Sawmill...................          214
    DAW Forest Products...................  Redmond....................  Sawmill...................           45
    International Paper...................  Reedsport..................  Sawmill...................           80
    International Paper...................  Gardiner...................  P&P.......................          325
    C & D Lumber..........................  Riddle.....................  Sawmill...................           80
    Louisiana Pacific.....................  Rogue River................  Veneer....................  ...........
    Medford Corporation...................  Rogue River................  Veneer....................           75
    California Cedar Products.............  Roseburg...................  Sawmill...................           50
    Champion (Seneca Timber)..............  Roseburg...................  Plywood...................          260
    P&M Cedar Products....................  Roseburg...................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Pacific Chips.........................  Roseburg...................  Chip Mill.................           36
    Roseburg Forest Products..............  Roseburg...................  Sawmill...................           42
    Willamette Industries.................  Saginaw....................  Sawmill...................           62
    Diamond Pacific Milling/Dry Kilns.....  Salem......................  Sawmill...................           15
    North Santiam Plywood.................  Salem......................  Plywood...................          100
    Kohl Lumber...........................  Seaside....................  Sawmill...................           13
    Taylor Lumber & Treating..............  Sheridan...................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Silverton Forest Products.............  Silverton..................  Sawmill...................           65
    Georgia Pacific.......................  Springfield................  Plvwood...................          250
    Nicolai Company.......................  Springfield................  Sawmill...................          163
    Oregon Cedar Products.................  Springfield................  Sawmill...................           80
    Springfield Forest Products...........  Springfield................  Sawmill...................          200
    Stone Forest Industries...............  Springfield................  Sawmill...................           53
    Weyerhaeuser..........................  Springfield................  Sawmill...................          270
    Weyerhaeuser Pulp and Paper...........  Springfield................  P&P.......................          520
    Weyerhaeuser..........................  Springfield................  P&P.......................          140
    Pacific Western Forest Products.......  St. Helens.................  Plywood...................          288
    St. Helens Mill.......................  St. Helens.................  ..........................  ...........
    Weyerhaeuser..........................  Stayton....................  LVL Plant.................           43
                                            Sutherlin..................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Linn Forest Products..................  Sweet Home.................  Sawmill...................           95
    Weyerhaeuser..........................  Sweet Home.................  Sawmill...................           81
    WI--Foster Sawmill....................  Sweet Home.................  Sawmill...................           44
    WI--Midway Veneer.....................  Sweet Home.................  Veneer....................           80
    Willamette Industries.................  Sweet Home.................  Plywood...................          168
                                            Swisshome..................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    WTD...................................  Tillamook..................  Sawmill...................           30
    Wheeler Manu. (Conf. Tribes of Siletz)  Toledo.....................  Sawmill...................           90
    American Hardwoods....................  Tualatin...................  Sawmill...................          166
                                            Tygh Valley................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    WTD Industries........................  Union......................  Sawmill...................           80
                                            Vaughn.....................  Sawmill...................
    C B Cedar Co..........................  Medford....................  Sawmill...................           50
    Eugene F. Burrill Lumber Co...........  Medford....................  Sawmill...................          112
    KOGAP.................................  Medford....................  Sawmill...................          200
    Medford Corporation...................  Medford....................  Sawmill...................          320
    Miller Redwood........................  Merlin.....................  Sawmill...................           85
    Bugaboo Timber........................  Mill City..................  Sawmill...................           50
    Green Veneer..........................  Mill City..................  Veneer....................           40
    Young & Morgan........................  Mill City..................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Simpson Timber Co.....................  Millersburg................  Sawmill...................          200
    Murphy Co.............................  Milwaukie..................  Sawmill...................           97
    Avison Lumber Co......................  Molalla....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Brazier Forest Industries.............  Molalla....................  Stud Mill.................           83
    Murphy Creek Lumber Co................  Murphy.....................  Sawmill...................           24
                                            Myrtle Point...............  Sawmill...................  ...........
                                            North Bend.................  Sawmill...................  ...........
                                            North Plains...............  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Tree Source...........................  North Powder...............  Sawmill...................  ...........
                                            Norway.....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Evergreen Forest Products.............  Oakland....................  Sawmill...................          480
    Bald Knob.............................  Oakridge...................  Sawmill...................          140
    Pope & Talbot.........................  Oakridge...................  Sawmill...................          370
    Pope & Talbot.........................  Oakridge...................  Sawmill...................           20
                                            Ophir......................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Stimson Lumber........................  Oregon City................  Sawmill...................           85
    Caffal Brothers.......................  Oregon City................  Sawmill...................  ...........
                                            Paisley....................  Sawmill...................  ...........
                                            Pedee......................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Diamond B Georaia Pacific)............  Philomath..................  Sawmill...................          155
    Philomath Wood Products...............  Philomath..................  Sawmill...................          106
    Tree Source Pac/Soft..................  Philomath..................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Tree Source/Phil. FP..................  Philomath..................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Special Products of Oregon............  Phoenix....................  Sawmill...................           80
    Louisiana Pacific.....................  Pilot Rock.................  Sawmill...................           60
    Boise Cascade.........................  Portland...................  R&D.......................           55
    Felt Mill.............................  Portland...................  ..........................  ...........
    Portland Mill.........................  Portland...................  ..........................  ...........

[[Page 3671]]

 
    Weyerhaeuser..........................  Headquarters...............  Admin.....................          345
                                            Prairie City...............  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Crown Pacific Ltd.....................  Prineville.................  Sawmill...................           36
    Crown Pacific Ltd.....................  Prineville.................  Sawmill...................           60
    D & E Wood Products...................  Prineville.................  Sawmill...................           15
    Northwest Pacific Moulding & Cutstock.  Prineville.................  Moulding..................           18
    Ochoco................................  Prineville.................  Sawmill...................           80
    Ochoco Lumber.........................  Prineville.................  Sawmill...................          100
    International Paper...................  Veneta.....................  Sawmill...................          100
                                            Waldport...................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Rogge Wood Products...................  Wallowa....................  Sawmill...................           30
    Wallowa Forest Products...............  Wallowa....................  Sawmill...................           50
    Warm Springs FP.......................  Warm Springs...............  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Warrento Lumber Products..............  Warrengton.................  Sawmill...................          147
    Boise Cascade.........................  White City.................  Veneer....................           30
    Burrill Lumber Co.....................  White City.................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Double Dee Lumber Co..................  White City.................  Sawmill...................           20
    Medco.................................  White City.................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Medford Corporation...................  White City.................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Medite Corporation....................  White City.................  Sawmill...................           80
    Conifer Plywood Co....................  Willamina..................  Plywood...................          158
    Williams Sawmill......................  Williams...................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Winchester Sawmill....................  Winchester.................  Sawmill...................  ...........
    Weyerhaeuser..........................  Winston....................  LVL Plant.................           37
    Weyerhaeuser..........................  Wood Burn..................  Sawmill...................           57
    Yoncalla Timber Products (WTD)........  Yoncalla...................  Sawmill...................           45
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  It goes on and on. These mill closures manifest themselves in the 
most horrific human ways. It is more than just loss of logging and 
truck driving jobs and destroyed communities in places I have 
mentioned. Thirty-five thousand Oregonians in the forest products 
industry lost their jobs in the 1990s--35,000. I remember those dark 
days. The year the Federal courts shut down the woods, I was elected as 
State Senator from Pendleton, OR. At the time there was talk that 
Oregon had to move on from the boom-and-bust cycle of Federal timber 
sales. There was talk that we could swap out jobs in the Douglas fir 
forests for ones in the silicon forest.
  Such talk seems so hollow now. But of the 35,000 Oregonians who lost 
their jobs in the woods and in the lumber mills, nearly half of them 
never found work again in our State. They either moved to another 
State, retired or remained chronically unemployed. Those who did find 
other work ended up with lower wages than they earned a decade before. 
Mr. President, 450 workers out of 35,000, just 1 percent, joined the 
high-tech industry.
  Not surprisingly, high unemployment in Oregon led to higher hunger 
rates. Between 1999 and 2001 Oregon had the Nation's highest incidence 
of hunger. Now my State faces a new epidemic, that of methamphetamine.
  But we might ask, how is the owl doing? The answer may surprise you. 
It infuriates me.
  The spotted owl has become one of the most intensely studied species 
on earth. Ten years of research and more than 1,000 published studies 
detail the threats to its survival, but none is conclusive.
  Most recently, in 2004, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reviewed 
the status of the northern spotted owl. It did so at the request not of 
environmentalists, but the timber industry--who wanted to know if the 
shut-down of the forests had actually worked.
  The status review introduced a new antagonist to the saga. Not the 
logger, but another owl. The barred owl is not native to the Pacific 
Northwest. It is larger, more aggressive, more successful in predation 
and reproduces faster than the spotted owl.
  No one knows for sure how the barred owl made its way to the 
Northwest from the east coast. Some biologists believe that, 
ironically, the growth and planting of trees across the Great Plains 
created a ``tree bridge'' for the barred owl to traverse the nation and 
into spotted owl habitat.
  The Fish and Wildlife Service report found, quote:

       Barred owls react more aggressively towards northern 
     spotted owls than the reverse. There are also a few instances 
     of barred owl aggression and predation on northern spotted 
     owls. The information collected to date indicates that 
     encounters between these two species tend to be agonistic in 
     nature, and that the outcome is unlikely to favor the 
     northern spotted owl. Given this relationship, barred owls 
     may be able to displace or preempt northern spotted owls from 
     territories. Further, use of more diverse habitat types and 
     prey, may confer some competitive advantage to barred owls 
     over northern spotted owls with respect to reproductive 
     output.

  The report cited empirical evidence that barred owls were killing the 
spotted owl. Here is a biologist's account of one such incident:

       On 11 May 1997 at approximately 14:30 Leskiw found a 
     freshly (blood fresh and wet) killed Spotted Owl along a 
     trail in Redwood National Park, Humboldt County, California. 
     Two sets of feathers were found within 60 meters of the body. 
     The owl was decapitated, but the head could not be located. 
     Additionally, what appeared to be several Spotted Owl 
     feathers were seen in a tree 4 meters above the ground. 
     Finally, the ground litter was disturbed in a 2 meter radius 
     around the carcass, suggesting a struggle had occurred. 
     Leskiw left the area and returned at approximately 15:30. 
     When he returned to the kill site at 15:45, a Barred Owl 
     spontaneously hooted nearby. . . . Gutierrez necropsied the 
     Spotted Owl. The bird's head had been removed by 
     disarticulation of the cervical vertebrae. The muscle from 
     the left side of the bird's breast, side, and wing were 
     eaten. These lines of circumstantial evidence combine to 
     suggest that a Barred Owl indeed killed and partially 
     consumed this Spotted Owl.

  One writer put the relationship between barred and spotted owl more 
eloquently. She wrote:

       A new twist emerges in the turf war over Pacific Northwest 
     forests as a new adversary invades the remaining haunts of 
     the threatened spotted owl.
       Just before dawn, a chill fog drifts through the old-growth 
     redwoods of northwestern California. A group of birders 
     breathe out puffs of steam as they listen to the growing 
     chorus of morning birdsong. Then the gentle sounds of 
     kinglets and thrushes are buried under a torrent of avian 
     rock 'n' roll as the wild, intense hoots of a barred owl ring 
     out.
       It is one of the first recorded sightings of this species 
     in this part of California. A couple of months later an 
     agitated barred owl will be found perched near the body of a 
     freshly killed spotted owl in Redwood National Park, near the 
     Oregon border, feathers of his presumed victim stuck in his 
     talons. The latest turf war in the Pacific Northwest has 
     reached redwood country.
       Dark-eyed woodland species, the barred owl and spotted owl 
     are cousins that look so similar that novice birders have 
     trouble telling them apart. Until recently, the two birds 
     never met. The barred owl haunted forests east of the Great 
     Plains, while the spotted owl lived only in old conifer 
     forests of the Pacific Northwest. Now the barred owl is on 
     the move--and it is moving in on the threatened spotted owl.

  Eric Forsman, the Oregon State University masters student who wrote 
the first major opus on the decline of the spotted owl in 1976, is now 
a biologist for the Forest Service and a leading researcher of the 
barred owl. He recently commented:

       For the last thirty years we've been trying to come up with 
     ways of protecting the spotted owl, and now all of a sudden, 
     this huge monkey wrench gets thrown into the works. In the 
     past, we could assume that what we were seeing in terms of 
     habitat would help us to understand what was happening with 
     the spotted owl. Now we don't know if spotted owls aren't 
     there because there is no habitat for them or because of the 
     barred owls.

  A spokesperson for the Audubon Society, which led the charge to set 
aside spotted owl habitat in the 1980s and 90s, reacted to news of the 
barred owl by simply stating: ``We are ambivalent.''
  Biologists, too, are perplexed over another question: why more old 
growth

[[Page 3672]]

forest has resulted in fewer spotted owls.
  A ten year review of the Clinton Northwest Forest Plan found that 
there are 600,000 more acres of old growth in western Oregon and 
Washington than there was a decade ago.
  However, the sharpest decline in spotted owl populations actually 
occurred where the least amount of federal timber harvest took place 
namely the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. This is also the 
location of the greatest number of barred owls.
  The spotted owl actually increased its population in southern 
Oregon--where the most federal harvest activity took place, and had the 
smallest incidence of barred owl invasion.
  One thing is for certain--the future of the spotted owl is not only 
affected by the teeth of chainsaws, but in the bloody talon of the 
barred owl.
  And there is a third twist. Forest fires are decimating spotted owl 
habitat. Over 100,000 acres of spotted owl habitat was severely burned 
over the last 10 years. Now, we don't clear-cut for human use, we just 
burn it all in wildfires.
  This is the Biscuit Fire, the largest fire in Oregon's history, the 
most expensive to fight in Forest Service history, costing in excess of 
$150 million. Shoot, folks, with $150 million we could take care of all 
the problems I am talking about with Oregon counties. The Biscuit Fire 
incinerated 65,000 acres of the spotted owl habitat as seen in this 
picture. This is more than four times the amount affected by timber 
sales in the 50 years preceding the fire. One notable difference is 
that areas harvested were replanted.
  So after 15 years of not logging old growth, growing new growth, and 
burning ``protected'' old growth, the Federal Government doesn't know 
what to do for the spotted owl. After 15 years since its listing under 
the ESA, the Federal Government does not even have a recovery plan for 
the spotted owl. And now we are hearing from the Federal Government it 
doesn't have much of a plan for the people whose lives were ruined.
  As I stand here today, it is also clear that the Federal Government 
doesn't know what to do with these communities in the wake of its 
failed management decisions.
  Let me also mention a fourth impact. This should be of particular 
interest to those Members concerned about the outsourcing of U.S. jobs 
and industries to other countries. As wood production fell on the 
Federal timberlands, it was replaced--board foot by board foot--by the 
Canadian Government in its ``Crown Lands.'' Does anyone think the 
spotted owl knows the difference between the United States and Canadian 
borders? I don't think they know. But what we are doing now is not 
harvesting our land. What we are doing now is burning our land, and the 
Canadians are overcutting their lands.
  This trend is mirrored in reverse by the blue line on this chart, 
showing Canadian lumber imports into this country.
  The green and blue lines diverge in 1990--the years the spotted owl 
was listed as threatened. The flood of Canadian imports met the ever-
growing U.S. demand for lumber.
  So instead of milling our lumber, harvested from our own forests, 
with our own environmental laws, we are exporting the impact and the 
jobs to other countries--other countries with fewer environmental 
protections and where forests regenerate more slowly.
  For a further example of the outsourcing of our lumber industry, go 
to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. With western timber locked up in court, 
southern timber blown down in the storm, the administration actually 
floated the idea of lowering tariffs on foreign imported lumber for the 
Katrina rebuilding effort.
  Needless to say, that concept did not move far. Plenty of lumber was 
reproduced for the reconstruction. Much of it was salvaged, probably 
from Mississippi and Louisiana.
  The point here is that actions have consequences. If the United 
States wants to consume wood, and it should, then it needs to recognize 
where wood comes from. But if Americans don't want wood to come from 
American forests, harvested under the strictest environmental 
guidelines in the world, then let's face that reality. But the reality 
has consequences.
  I wonder if I can ask for an additional 15 minutes and that will be 
all I will require.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Whitehouse). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. SMITH. I thank the Senator from Vermont for listening to me. I 
have detailed for you the dramatic story of the Federal timber in 
Oregon that serves as the backdrop for the issue at hand.
  Beginning in the late 1980s, timber sales received the primary 
funding source for the 25 Percent Fund and began a precipitous decline 
for the reasons I have explained earlier. This plunge in receipts 
intensified and then bottomed out at a much lower level in the 1990s. 
The decline in receipts impacted rural communities in the West, 
particularly communities in Washington, Oregon, northern California, 
and Idaho.
  For example, in fiscal year 1995, national forest revenues were $557 
million, only 36 percent of fiscal year 1989 peak revenues of $1.531 
billion. In fiscal year 2004 national forest revenues were $281 
million. That is from ``billions'' to ``millions.''
  Payments to many States under the 25 Percent Fund Act declined by an 
average of 70 percent from 1986 through 1998. These are national 
figures. Those in Oregon were far more severe, reflecting the drastic 
fall in the timber sales program.
  The problem was compounded because 18 Oregon counties have different 
revenue-sharing agreements with the Bureau of Land Management.
  Mr. SANDERS. I ask the Senator to yield so I can do some 
housekeeping.
  Mr. SMITH. If I don't lose my place.

                          ____________________