16 



STATEMENT OF HON. RUSSELL FEINGOLD, A U.S. SENATOR FROM 



WISCONSIN 



Senator Feingold. I don't have a formal statement, and I am not 

 a member of this subcommittee although I am a member of the full 

 committee. This subject, however, is of substantial concern to me 

 and my State. 



I proposed looking at these so-called below-cost timber sales as an 

 item I thought might help us reduce the Federal deficit, and then, 

 of course, I found out after the analysis that a couple of those for- 

 ests were in Wisconsin. Being very candid about it, now, what we 

 have to do is to look at this policy from a very realistic point of 

 view, as the chairman just indicated. We must be sure to address 

 below-cost timber sales in situations where we can. However, we 

 must also identify those situations where, from an environmental 

 point of view, from a management point of view, and from an eco- 

 nomic point of view, the allure of near-term savings might conceal 

 the risk of long-term losses. 



So I am still committed to the general notion of changing this 

 policy, and I am very pleased that there is a tremendous amount of 

 effort going into timber sales reform while still achieving deficit re- 

 duction. So that is my interest in this issue. 



Senator Daschle. Thank you, Senator Feingold. 



Senator Baucus, we'd be happy to hear from you. 



STATEMENT OF HON. MAX BAUCUS, A U.S. SENATOR FROM 



MONTANA 



Senator Baucus. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



At the outset, I'd like to make it clear that this below-cost issue 

 is not only an environmental issue, but it is also a jobs issue. In my 

 home State of Montana, there are nearly 2,000 direct, not indirect, 

 but direct, timber jobs and thousands of other timber-related jobs 

 associated with the so-called below-cost issue. 



Below-cost timber sales have become a perennial issue, as we all 

 know, and I agree that now is the time — Senator Feingold made 

 that statement, and you did, Mr. Chairman, Senator Craig, and 

 Senator Leahy have all made that statement— that we deal with it. 

 We must tighten our belts. We must make sacrifices. But if we are 

 going to address it directly and forthrightly, I think there are three 

 matters the Forest Service needs to recognize up-front. 



It is going to shift to ecosystem management; it has to do that. 

 Second, it is going to tighten its belt and cut fat. It recognizes that 

 there is fat in the Forest Service. And it is going to rethink its 

 road-building policy. 



The guiding philosophy for the Forest Service during this centu- 

 ry was set out in its most famous form in the 1905 Pinchot letter, 

 ostensibly written by the Secretary of Agriculture, the first chief 

 forester, Gifford Pinchot. It is called the Pinchot letter because Pin- 

 chot personally wrote it for the Secretary's signature. Pinchot's 

 many ideas for how the National Forest System should be managed 

 are all set out in that 1905 letter — namely, his insistence on sus- 

 tained yield management; the mandate that conservative practice 

 be employed now to ensure that resources be available in the long 



