19 



HELEN CHENOWETH 



Oversight hearing on 

 President Clinton's Option 9 Forest Plan f 



Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests & Lands 



House Committee on Resources 



July 23, 1996 



Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing. Although 

 my district does not contain any of the so called "Option 9" forests, 

 what is happening with President Clinton's Forest Plan in the Pacific 

 Northwest will most likely serve as a model for the Columbia River 

 Basin's forest plan, which is in my district. My concern here, 

 however, is that the Option 9 plan affecting the Pacific Northwest will 

 be by default used as the model for the rest of the country. Option 9, 

 Mr Chairman, is not a model to protect fish and animals, or to put 

 people back to work. Option 9 is nothing more than a model to line 

 lawyers' pockets; a model of what not to do. It is not a model forest 

 program that we should follow when crafting other forest plans. 



The President's so called Option 9 solution was announced in 

 1993, and adopted in 1994! The plan was to be the great "solution" - 

 - the solution to saving owls, squirrels, and fish, and a solution to 

 saving jobs. Yet, here we are in 1996. Nothing has changed for the 

 better. Between 1993 and 1995, 66 mills closed their doors in 



