Ellen Simpson - June 01, 2009
Montana Wood Products Association
Optimism
It is becoming increasingly difficult to pick through the rubble to find pieces of optimism and sanity in the news and our lives these days. Being one of those annoying people who look at life as half full not half empty, this subtle change in attitude is new to me and hopefully, as my mother would have said, just a passing fancy.
Our country appears to be suffering from a systematic dismantling of its economic lifeblood with the government taking over companies like Chrysler and General Motors leaving thousands of workers adrift. The past year of business failures and trillions of dollars of debt foisted onto the backs of those who still hold jobs and struggle to make ends meet does not bode well for the future of upcoming generations.
In many ways, Montana has been lucky in that we are a natural resource rich state that thrives when our hard-working citizens unafraid of getting their hands dirty use their ingenuity and pride to produce the commodities used by all Americans every day. The timber community over many years has bobbed along because of the folks in our industry who simply love what they do. There is something enormously satisfying about the smell of sawdust and the sounds of work conducted in the forest and the mill to produce a value-added product that adds quality to the lives of others.
Unfortunately, at times it seems as though we face a systematic dismantling of our environmental lifeblood because of those in our midst who seem to think that humans are intruders on the planet and should be herded into small spaces so as not to use the land and resources. Others of us think that humans should be part of any solution to any problem facing civilization. This is where the two philosophies collide and produce the gridlock suffered by public land managers and ultimately negatively impact each and every one of us.
On what I believe is positive was the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964 containing the preservation of nine million acres of public land for future generations. It fit pretty well with other land management ideas passed prior to that time like the Organic Act of 1897 creating the National Forest System or the Multiple Use Act of 1960 that directed national forests be managed under principles of multiple use and to produce a sustained yield of products and services. However, in the ensuing 45 years, the number of acres under the Wilderness Act has grown to the current total of over 107 million acres nationwide. Montana has 22 million acres of forest land with roughly four million wilderness and wilderness study acres or 18 percent.
Of course, the 18 percent wilderness figure does not include over six million acres of inventoried roadless, a million acres in Glacier and Yellowstone Parks, Indian reservations, Montana trust lands, or lands reserved for monuments. The point is when a small faction continues to push for more and more tied up, human-hands-off acres the thought of what is enough comes into play and there does not appear to be a good answer.
This is exactly what has been happening with the exhausting battle of the Forest Service roadless rule that has been churning around since 2001 when thrown at us as Bill Clinton was headed out the door of the White House. If put into place in the Clinton form, six million more acres of Montana land would be cut off from many forms of recreation and certainly any commercial timber harvesting. This would not be a positive move for Montana or our residents.
The recently-appointed U.S. Secretary of Agriculture came out with an interim directive regarding these lands because of the confusion surrounding their management and due to competing lawsuits filed over the past eight years. In order for the glass to be half full on the roadless issue, a major revisit needs to take place to correct the many inaccuracies the rule contains. It is with some degree of hope that we think this directive in which the Secretary will assume decision-making authority over road building and timber harvesting in inventoried roadless areas will give some breathing room to the issue at least in a procedural manner.
Meanwhile, on behalf of the Montana Wood Products Association, I will continue the attitude adjustments to ensure that the fancy is just passing and that the timber community glass remains half full of optimism. This is Ellen Simpson and thanks for listening.
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