93 



Testimony 



House Resources Committee 



Subcommittee on National Partes, Forests and Lands 



Thursday, June 20, 1996, 10:00am 



Nadine Bailey 



Executive Assistant 



Michigan Wisconsin Timber Producers Association 



P.O.Box 1278 



Rhinelander, WI 54501 



Members of the committee. Thank you for allowing me to testify before you 

 today. This is an issue that has affected me on a very personal level. I now serve as 

 the Executive Assistant to the Timber Producers of Michigan and Wisconsin. I 

 have been in this position since October of 1995. However, before moving to 

 Wisconsin my family and I lived in the small Northern California town of 

 Hayfork. 



In 1990, a federal judge upheld an appeal brought by the Seattle Audubon against 

 the US Forest Service. The judge place an injunction against any further timber 

 harvest until a habitat management plan for the Northern Spotted Owl was 

 completed. At that time my husband and I had a small timber falling business that 

 employed approximately fifteen people. Because the federal government owns 

 approximately eighty percent of the land in Trinity County, we were unable to 

 continue operating our business. By the end of 1993 we were forced to close that 

 business losing everything that it had taken us a lifetime to build. Our story is not 

 unique. Unemployment in Trinity County and other forest dependant communities 

 has skyrocketed. Some California school districts still have as many as ninety-five 

 percent of the children on free and reduced lunches because they are living at or 

 below poverty level. As the situation worsened, my family and I were forced to 

 leave the area. This spring, the last remaining forest employer in Hayfork, the 

 Sierra Pacific mill, closed it doors. 



Although this is outside the basic question you asked me to address, I believe it is 

 important for this committee to understand my frustration. Never once during the 

 appeal process did anyone stop to consider the economic impacts of the appeal 

 procedure, or attempt to take public comment from the people being impacted. At 



26-518 96-4 



