Angie Craig: “I guess the best way to do that is to kind of take a snapshot back to 1989 and 1990 when this country had a vibrant…”

“I guess the best way to do that is to kind of take a snapshot back to 1989 and 1990 when this country had a vibrant forest products industry and a green sale program on the forested lands, the forested public lands of our Nation. I would be the first to tell you, as I have said over the years, that at that time we were probably managing a level of cut on our public lands that was not sustainable. But it was at that time that the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act began to take effect on those lands. We saw some very dramatic reductions in logging. Here is an example of the kind of reductions we have seen since 1989. The Senator from Oregon just spoke. In his State alone, 111 mills and 11,600 jobs. The Forest Service, by its action, in response to public policy shaped by the Senate, and interpreted by the courts of this country, caused this to happen by disallowing the availability of public saw logs to 111 mills. My State of Idaho: 17 mills, 770 jobs.”