Nader urges end to all logging on federal lands

Scott Sonner

Friday, April 7, 2000 | 3:19 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader says the government should halt all logging on national forests and other federal lands.

Nader said President Clinton's proposal to protect roadless areas in national forests doesn't go far enough.

"I don't believe there should be logging in federal forests, period," Nader said during a recent campaign stop in Nevada.

"As it is, it is only a fraction of the logging industry's stake." he said. "They have huge tracts of land to themselves. They waste enormous amounts of timber the way they harvest it."

Clinton's roadless initiative receives strong backing from Vice President Al Gore. But the Democratic presidential candidate is opposed to stopping commercial logging on national forests, said Doug Hattaway, chief spokesman for the Gore campaign based in Nashville, Tenn.

Rather, Gore supports "a balanced approach to using national forests. An outright ban doesn't fit into that," Hattaway said.

Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush opposes a federal logging ban and the Texas governor also disagrees with Clinton's roadless proposal.

"Governor Bush believes it is important to work closely with states and local communities to implement a balanced approach for managing our lands and forests," said Scott McClellan, Bush's campaign spokesman in Austin, Texas.

Nader said the Clinton administration has performed only "a little better" than Presidents Reagan and Bush in protecting forests.

Clinton deserves credit for persuading Congress to cut back on some subsidies "to build more roads into the national forests for the timber companies to cut more trees," Nader said.

"But the taxpayer is still losing money. The cost to facilitate the private harvesting of trees on national forests is still more than the returns they get from the timber industry," he said.

Nevada was the eighth state Nader has visited in his campaign for the Green Party, which describes itself as a progressive, populist party that values "ecological wisdom, social justice, feminism and respect for diversity."

About 120 Green Party candidates ran for office in the 1998 elections and 59 hold office in 12 states, mostly in nonpartisan offices, party officials say.

Nader says he will campaign in all 50 states and expects to make the November ballot in each.

Nader acknowledged a proposed ban on all federal logging faces stiff opposition in parts of the West. But he said the trend is changing.

"I think the trend in the West is to realize the recreational use is going to be massively greater in terms of economic output in the Western region than is the plunder of the natural wealth in these areas," he said.

"I think the grip of the mining industry needs to be challenged. That 1872 Mining Act is an enormous giveaway. And then they leave all the contamination after the mines are exhausted for the taxpayer to clean up," Nader said.

"It's almost like the difference between renewable energy or using extractive energy."