Despite the claims of Sen. Steve Daines, logging and timber sales in Montana continue to lose money and cost taxpayer dollars, all while working against Montana’s lucrative and booming wilderness-based tourism and outdoor recreation economy. We need to protect the Endangered Species Act, not weaken it to “cut red tape” for more unnecessary timber sales. By the timber industry’s own admission, the price offered for standing timber continues to fall as a result of over-cutting and over-supply. Meanwhile, the cost to taxpayers continues to climb.
A recent report by the Center for a Sustainable Economy found “taxpayer losses of nearly $2 billion a year associated with the federal logging program carried out on national forest and Bureau of Land Management lands. Despite these losses, the Trump Administration plans to significantly increase logging on these lands in the years ahead, a move that would plunge taxpayers into even greater debt.”
As Montana’s governance pushes unnecessary logging, our public lands are degraded along with our economic future. With the construction of new logging roads, brush and groundcover that
wildlife need to survive is clear cut and streams are overloaded with sediment. Threatened species like Canada lynx are driven closer to the brink of extinction. Montana’s reputation as “the last best place” is what draws in billions of dollars each year from visitors who come to see wildlife, untouched forests, and the vast, sprawling wild landscape that Montana is renowned for.
Why is it that Montana’s senators and representatives continue to demand more logging when their demands result in reduced production, increase job losses, lower the value of standing timber, and cost billions of taxpayer dollars?
We need to maintain, not weaken, the Endangered Species Act in order to strengthen Montana’s economic
future.
Elliot Burch
Bozeman
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Letter to the Editor 1/29/21