36 



Neither APHIS nor Washington and Oregon Departments of Ag- 

 riculture have adequate staff to do thorough inspection of imported 

 logs. We just do not have it. And Government inspectors from both 

 Federal and State agencies must monitor all stages of the handling 

 of imported logs and the difficulty in searching for pests in large 

 piles of wood and wood chips means that inspectors must evaluate 

 based on really superficial examination. 



The Department of Agriculture in Washington has only one per- 

 son, one entomologist that is available on an intermittent basis the 

 way we are now. Log inspection must be continuous to be effective. 

 We have to be there almost all the time while the ship is being un- 

 loaded. And in the interim, assistance by our four-person Depart- 

 ment of Natural Resources, forest health staff has been used. That 

 is basically me. And we quickly become overwhelmed, would be 

 overwhelmed if we had more ships come. We just could not handle 

 it the way we are set up now because that is not our normal role. 

 We are dealing with forests not log ships. 



Costs for inspection and other services should be covered by the 

 companies bringing logs here. We feel strongly that all costs should 

 be borne by importing companies at various, whatever stage they 

 would be in. The companies are more amenable to assessed fees 

 based on tonnage or volume, rather than just a ship or hourly 

 charge. So coming up with some sort of assessed fee seems reason- 

 able. 



The Department of Agriculture in Washington does have author- 

 ity to charge inspection fees for grain and hops now, and it would 

 just take a simple majority vote of the legislature in Washington 

 to approve it for logs. So that could be done. 



My last point here is that more Federal funding is necessary for 

 APHIS and particularly the impacted States to intensify log import 

 regulations at the State level, so the States could do a much better 

 job. 



Washington and possibly other States need a one-time Federal 

 grant to establish a log inspection protocol. In other words, we are 

 looking to Congress to get us help to get going and then the as- 

 sessed fees would cover the operations from that point on. 



And so to end it up here, destructive forest insects and diseases 

 are insidiously at work. They do not respect political boundaries 

 and they do not take vacations, and they are known to hitchhike 

 across the oceans, there is no doubt about that. 



So dealing with log import regulations means it is a hand-off be- 

 tween APHIS and the Department of Agriculture. It is like playing 

 a football game. APHIS pass the ball and then we take over. And 

 we need to be properly funded to do that and we need a really tight 

 system to handle all this. Thank you. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Russell appears at the conclusion 

 of the hearing.] 



Mr. Rose. You say we, APHIS hands it off to the Washington 

 State Department of Natural Resources? 



Mr. Russell. Washington State Department of Agriculture. And 

 the Department of Natural Resources, the way we are functioning 

 now, is we simply assist them because we care. We care about the 

 problem and so we are just helping them out. 



Mr. Rose. All right. Thank you all very much. 



