logging and environmental problems

[Dick Wagner]

Here Here?

What I pay for wood is what the lumber yards sell it for. Of course, I could offer 
them a 10% or 20% bonus and ask them to forward it to the producers. What a joke and 
what a shameless copout!

No matter how environmentally correct the lumber producers are, there will always be 
groups who will cut corners to increase their profits. It's the American way and, I 
might add, the way over most of the world. The only control over this situation is 
tight regulation, and that just isn't happening and isn't going to happen. 

Just accept the fact that greed and ignorance are the important players in this 
field.

It is hard to fault the loggers; they are only working for someone else. But they 
have to bid against other groups too. 

The real crime is that the loggers are whining about loss of jobs, but The trees 
that are being cut are the property of the American people. Many of the logs are 
shipped whole, to foreign countries for processing and I don't hear the loggers 
whining about the loss of mill jobs. Many western logs are shipped, I believe, to 
Japan, while our hardwoods are shipped to Taiwan. The US government subsidizes many 
logging operations with road building and tree planting, and at the same time is 
basically gives this product to overseas operations. The logging industry that 
supports this rape, probably complained bitterly about the NAFTA last year.