Angie Craig: “Last year, commercial sales of logs by the Forest Service produced a profit of $14.7 million. Last year's stewardship…”

“Last year, commercial sales of logs by the Forest Service produced a profit of $14.7 million. Last year's stewardship sales, the kind that the Senator from Nevada is talking about, for the purposes of forest health, the kind that is going on in the Tahoe Basin, lost the Forest Service $57.4 million. Those are the facts from the Forest Service. It is understandable because when you go in to clean up the dead and dying and to improve the general health of the forested lands, you are dealing with a less valuable stick of timber. But the reality is that what the Senator from Nevada advocates is, in fact, a losing proposition. But I support stewardship, as does the Senator from Nevada, because it improves the forest health, it improves wildlife habitat, and water quality when it is properly done. It is not a money-maker. It is something that will have to be subsidized. Is the Senator from Nevada willing to say that the company that does the stewardship contract for the Forest Service is a subsidized business? He just finished talking about corporate welfare. Is that welfare or is that forest health? Is that an environmentally sound thing to do? I think we are getting our facts a bit mixed up. The road maintenance program was not slashed this year; $10 million was added to it.”