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E-M:/ DNR Budget/Timber Mandate update
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Enviro-Mich message from anne.woiwode@sfsierra.sierraclub.org
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It appears that the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Natural
Resources will hold its hearing tomorrow as scheduled. While there is no
requirement for the Subcommittee to announce cancellations well in
advance, the expectation is that they would have cancelled by late this
afternoon if they were planning not to hold it.
Below is a letter Sierra Club has sent on this issue. We understand there
is some modification of the language under discussion among subcommittee
members, and the issues raised below are just a part of the concerns
Sierra Club and other enviros have raised for four years on this issue.
It is still timely to contact and express your concerns about this
proposal to the Subcommittee members: Senators George McManus, Harry Gast,
Phil Hoffman, Ken DeBeaussaert and Don Koivisto.
Also, please see a separate post about an action in Traverse City last
week on this issue.
April 3, 2000
The Honorable George McManus
Michigan State Senate
State Capitol
Lansing, MI 48913
Dear Senator McManus:
Boilerplate language in the DNR FY2001 Budget Bill (HB 5281) which
mandates that the Department put up timber sales at or above a level of
sustainability on the State Forests is in conflict with not only good
forest management practices and multiple uses of the forests, it is also
in conflict with good sense and sound economic principles. The Sierra
Club requests the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Natural Resources
to delete all boilerplate references to mandatory timber marking or timber
sale levels on Michigan's State Forests.
For four years, the Sierra Club has argued against mandatory timber
production quotas in the DNR budget for many reasons. This year, however,
the proposal as it emerged from the House has reached the point of
absurdity. A government mandated quota to put on the market more wood in
FY2001 than was sold all of last year by the DNR on the free market is
economic folly that serves only the largest timber products companies of
Michigan.
This proposal becomes particularly ludicrous when other parts of
the DNR budget are considered as well. The administration is requesting a
$2.5 million fund transfer from General Funds into the Forest Development
Fund in order to make up for a multiple year shortfall in revenue to the
state in the sale of timber products off State Forest lands. The
explanation given is that Michigan's DNR has a generous program for
management of its timber sales, and the industry has stockpiled large
amounts of timber sales on State Forest lands, at significant public
expense. No well run company pours additional product onto the market
when inventories are at all time high levels and revenues are low. As the
largest owner of forest land in Michigan, this legislatively mandated
timber sale quota has potential to wreak havoc on private forest land
owners who cannot possibly compete on equal footing with the government in
this market.
The timber industry has argued that the boilerplate mandate is
needed to assure DNR accountability, but this government mandated quota
for timber sales instead:
n costs taxpayers money;
n floods the market with wood above any detectable demand;
n puts the state in unfair competition with small and medium private,
non-industrial forest land owners; and
n sends a clear signal to agency staff that use of the State Forest for
recreation, wildlife, and water quality are secondary to getting the cut
out.
As the new century takes hold, we urge you to eliminate timber
mandates entirely from the DNR Budget. Sierra Club strongly supports
increasing the accountability of the DNR in its management of our State
Forest system. However, this mandatory minimum timber sale quota has
nothing to do with holding the DNR accountable, and everything to do with
a blatant, unvarnished give away to the largest timber products companies
in Michigan.
Sincerely,
Anne Woiwode
Program Director
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