Charles Taylor: “First of all, it will restore forest health. Most of the things that have been said about it so far just are not true.…”

“First of all, it will restore forest health. Most of the things that have been said about it so far just are not true. Scientists recognize that the forests are undergoing a serious ecological decline because of a lack of management. Fire disasters, unnatural species compositions, disease, insect infestation; all of these are threatening the forest health, and this legislation which has been worked out with professionals, it has been worked out in consulting with the Forest Service, as many people as we could find to try to alleviate this emergency were brought in in this short period of time, and it is an emergency. Even the chief of the Forest Service, Mr. Chairman, has said we need to increase our salvage cutting for forest health. Second, there are tens of billions of dollars of revenue coming to the Treasury, or millions of dollars of revenue coming to the Treasury. It is not a loss. CBO scored it $37 million last year. FPA says it could be as much as $650 million. So it is a very positive revenue producer. Third, it will stabilize the cost of homes. It will create jobs, and that is why the home builders, and realtors and many others are supporting this. It will create thousands of jobs all across this country in a much needed area, putting timber in the pipeline, and that is why the Teamsters Union supports it.”