THE TIMBER INDUSTRY 
 
  The timber industry has been criticized on various fronts for their operations in both government (public) lands and privately owned property. Since privately owned property is less restricted in use and management, many environmental and timber logging issues have been focused on publically owned property. Of particular interest is land managed by the United States Forest Service. The Forest Service, under the Department of Agriculture, manages over 191 million acres of public forests and range lands.

 

Public lands forestry

Various groups are debating the use of taxpayers' money for subsidizing forestry on public lands and the appropriate methods of financing and capitalizing on such logging operations. The Forest Service has published an Action Strategy for managing their forests in the future and balancing the multi-use of such lands. To look at the two sides of the debate, the Sierra Club has published its opinion on the actions of the Forest Service to preserve and properly manage its forests. For a counter argument, the National Center for Public Policy Research has published a Talking Points of the Environment on Subsidized Timber Sales used by politicians to help discuss information during talk shows and other debate forums. It intends to counteract some possible "generalizations" made against public lands forestry.

 

Trade association efforts and Sustainable Foresty

The industry's trade association, the American Forest and Paper Association, has published an extensive site involving congressional and forestry issues of its member companies.

 On the steps of certifying timber, the industry association has published guidelines about Sustainable Foresty that it intends to follow in its lobbying and public relations efforts as the objective for enhancing the value of forestry resources and creating a compromise in legislation that occurs in Congress.

 International Paper has created an excellent site polling visitors about their preferences for the future of forestry. While it promotes Sustainable Forestry, each different option has a pros and cons discussion for review by the reader.

 

Economic impacts and timber hotspots

While data of the economic impact of timber harvesting on jobs, materials revenue, and government tax revenue varies from region to region, a group of Washington loggers has made an effort to provide timber data that shows the actual revenue and amount of logging done on various types of lands in the region.

 In addition to the information about economic impacts, the lumber industry has also collaborated on discussions about various regional hotspots where either legal or legislative action has resulted in serious discussions about the effects and results of logging of certain trees or in certain areas. Since the perspective of the timber industry is being observed, discussions by a California Redwoods trade association and by the Pacific Lumber Company about the Headwaters Forest are noted.