The Uncosted West · Episode 9 of 15 · 50 min
Why the U.S. Forest Service Loses Money Selling Public Timber
The Forest Service often spends more preparing a timber sale and building logging roads than it gets back for the trees. The episode explains below-cost sales and the roughly 370,000-mile Forest Service road system, and gives the agency's multiple-use mandate, rural jobs, and fire-management case a fair hearing.
Who's who
- Gifford Pinchot+12 more episodesFirst head of the Forest Service, created in 1905
Timeline
- 1905Forest Service created and timber sales become a core function
- 1960Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act makes timber one of several co-equal uses
- 1976National Forest Management Act sets the modern planning framework
- 1984GAO report puts below-cost timber sales on the congressional agenda
- 2004CRS publishes its standard overview of below-cost timber sales
Still debated
Headline loss figures of $1 to $2 billion are reconstructions that depend on whether roads and overhead are counted, and the agency argues cash accounting leaves out public benefits. The size of the road maintenance backlog and the wildfire value of commercial sales are also debated.
← PreviousWhat Cattle and Sheep Do to Public Rivers and Wild BighornNext →The Spotted Owl, the Timber Wars, and the Real Value of Old Growth
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How One Arizona Hillside Built Modern ForestryGround Truth: Forest Service Research · Episode 1Also features Gifford Pinchot
How America Made Indigenous Fire a Crime, and Its ReturnThe Fire This Time · Episode 3Also features Gifford Pinchot
The Greatest Good? How the Forest Service Promised to Manage Public LandThe Long Run · Episode 1Also features Gifford Pinchot
The Fight Over FishFishing for a Solution · Episode 1Also features Gifford Pinchot