142 



In 1992 President Bush published a brochure before taking a walk in the 

 Sequoias with Forest Service Chief Dale Robertson pointing out: 



"In the United States, responsible forest conservation is a long- 

 standing tradition. Annual forest growth now exceeds timber harvests 

 by 37 percent, and the total national volume of wood is 25 percent 

 larger than it was in 1952 



i 

 These claims rest on Forest Service data . They contend that nationally 



timber growth vastly exceeds cut and the standing timber inventory has 



expanded on the Nation's 483 million forest acres, as well as on the 56 



million National Forest acres rated "Suitable For Timber Production". 



With growth exceeding cut and expanding inventories does it make sense 

 to sell National Forest timber when it creates a financial loss to our 

 deficit- ridden Government, or environmental conservatism is our wiser 

 choice. 



WHY DOES THE FOREST SERVICE SELL TIMBER AT A LOSS? 



BECAUSE IT PRICES ITS TIMBER BASED ON THE AGENCY ESTIMATE 

 OF THE VALUE OF THE TIMBER TO A BUYER - NOT THE AGENCY COST 

 TO GROW, MANAGE, PROTECT AND SUPPLY THE TIMBER TO INDUSTRY. 



The fatal weakness in the Forest Service timber program is that it 

 estimates the value of the timber with the goal of setting an: 



"...appraised value... based on the operator of average efficiency 



and ...aimed at a [appraised price] which will interest sufficient 

 purchasers to harvest the allowable cut ....[ while ) providing an 

 adequate margin for profit and risk which will be sufficient 

 to maintain operations over the long run and thus provide a stable 

 market for National Forest timber..." Source F.S. Manual 2420.2. 



The Forest Service not only fails to set its asking price based on what 

 it costs it, or a typical sustained-yield forest owner, to be a consistent 

 long term grower-supplier-manager of timber - it doesn't know representative 

 sample sale costs, although required by Sec. 6(1) of NFMA of 1976 to track 

 and report such facts. This is a proviso George Brown authored. 



By pricing its timber based on a perceived need to keep buyers 

 profitable and sell the National Forest Allowable Cut, it also ignores the 



U.S. Actions For Abetter Environment, White House, Undated, 

 about June 1992, Page 8. Source appears to be Forest Statistics of 

 the U.S. Forest Service. USDA, PNW-RB-168, 1987. 



The source is PNW-RB-168. The base is cubic feet. However, 

 hardwoods, in large gurplus are combined with softwoods, which show 

 a small surplus. The clainrs are exaggerated when one considers the 

 factors that count. ■"' 



