Fact:
Less than four percent of the wood products Americans use come from
the National Forests.
(USFS Timber Sale Program Annual Report, FY 1995, p. 6.) Private lands
are more suitable for
timber production. National Forest land is on average of lower
productivity and on steeper,
higher elevation terrain than are private forestlands. (USFS, Forest
Resources of the United
States, Rocky Mt. Forest and Range Experiment Station, 1992.)
Subsidized public timber artificially lowers wood prices and
government dumping of
cheap timber devalues all timberlands. Ending logging on public
lands will greatly increase the
value of private timberlands and the timber they contain. This
will provide an incentive for
sustainable management of private timberlands.