WEBVTT

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[sil.]

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Welcome to our national forests.

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Magnificent and diverse forests
stretching from coast-to-coast,

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managed for the public trust by
the United States Forest Service,

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home to complex ecosystems

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and thousands of species
of plants, wildlife

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and microorganisms

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and site of massive clearcutting, subsidized
through tax dollars for private gain.

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When somebody from Indiana

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or somebody from New Jersey looks at a…

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a highway map of the West Coast, they see
all these neat green areas and they think

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it\'s just forest and Smokey the Bear is out there protecting it.
What they don\'t know is, when they come out on the vacations

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and they get away from the
highways, it\'s clearcut.

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God put the forest down here and he
put man on here to take care of it

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and harvest it. If he didn\'t, they wouldn\'t be here. If he didn\'t
want us… If god didn\'t want us to use it, it wouldn\'t be here.

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I don\'t believe that most of the people in the United
States even understand that we\'ve been cutting down

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the national forest and selling
it to private enterprise.

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Why is the Forest Service protector
of our national forests,

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home to Smokey the Bear and Woodsy Owl,

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selling off our natural heritage?

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Who is making money off these
trees and at whose expense?

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It\'s the timber industry
that\'s extremely powerful

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that\'s putting pressure on the Forest Service and Congress to keep
cutting the national forest even while they are exporting their

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own private timber at the expense of jobs,
at the expense of community stability.

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You know, our tax dollars are going to pay for
clearcuts and roads, really subsidizing a…

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a special interest which is the timber companies.
Those who are making the money doing that,

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that\'s just good old-fashion
American greed. Individual greed

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occasionally has to be restrained
for the better public good.

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Our decisions to sell off public timber

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the result of good
forestry or bad politics?

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Every stick of timber that is sold off
of public forest competes directly

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with the privately-owned timber both for
market share and for government subsidization.

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The county

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would be bankrupt if the timber industry ceased
today. We want the Forest Service to start meeting

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the National Environmental Policy Act, the National
Forest Management Act, the Endangered Species Act.

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In short, start meeting the laws that
have already been passed to the intent

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and spirit what those laws were passed. Old-growth
timber cutting now is like buffalo hunting

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back in the late 1800s. The owls don\'t
write letters and the bears don\'t vote

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and the trees don\'t have any
way to speaking to Congress.

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Our American forests are vanishing.

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Ninety to 95% of America\'s original
forests are gone with the exception

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of those in the Pacific Northwest. Experts
believe that at the current rate of cutting,

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these forests will also
be extinct in 20 years.

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National forests are not a major
source of domestic timber.

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They account for just 13%.
Most of our domestic timber

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comes from private lands.
They are tree farms,

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selected species plated in even
rows like corn or any other crop

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to be harvested for wood products.
Native national forests

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are not tree farms they are complex forests
supporting a rich variety of species

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and life forms. But by clearcutting

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and replacing complex ecosystems with
single species, we are jeopardizing

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valuable biological resources.

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By cutting

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down old-growth forests, virgin forests
which predate Columbus, we are losing

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an irreplaceable national treasure.

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[music]

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How have we come to this crisis in our national
forests and what can we do to prevent it?

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[music]

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Can history provide us with any answers?
Oregon state forestry

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professor Dave Perry.

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Ever since we settled down into agricultural villages and
towns, we\'ve been deforesting the earth. Six thousand years ago

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when the Fertile Crescent of the
Middle East was the Fertile Crescent,

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there was a rich agricultural tradition
that collapsed. For a long time

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we thought that was because of climate change. The evidence now
says that it\'s quite different, that was because of deforestation,

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that they logged their hillsides, they
lost their soils, they lost their source

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of raw material for homes.
Ecologist and author

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Elliott Norse.

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Once all of Europe was covered
by forest and today hardly

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ending up at as all the original forests of Europe are gone. Greece once was covered with
trees, whereas it\'s now covered with scrubland. Two thousand five hundred years ago,

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Plato, famous philosopher,
said that what was happening

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to the land of Greece, his land,
was like what was happening

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when a body is stripped off its flesh leaving
only the skeleton, because the trees

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which held the soil on Greece, as they were
ripped away, the soil of Greece was washed

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off the mountains and into the ocean,
exposing the bare rocks of the land.

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Although we learned a lot from
Plato and the ancient Greeks,

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when it comes to protecting forests, we
haven\'t learned from their mistakes.

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[music]

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Legend had it that the new world was a
place of unlimited natural resources.

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America was indeed covered
with a great forest.

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The woodlands provided early
settlers with fuel and timber

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to build homes and ships.

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The forest was also a source of wealth for
trade at a time when a deforested Europe

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had great need for timber.

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As America developed, enormous
quantities of trees were needed

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to fuel our fireplaces, industries,

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steamboats and railroads.

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By the 1860s, the destruction
of forest was becoming evident.

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With an insatiable hunger for wood,
the emerging timber industry

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demolished entire forests and moved on.

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The movement of the timber industry
meant a cycle of boom and bust.

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Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for example,
was the timber capital of America

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for less than 40 years. The rapid
pace of cutting there resulted

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in a loss of soil. Without
the forests and soil

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to absorb the rainfall, floods - like those
depicted in the classic film The River –

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repeatedly devastated the communities
and wiped out the structures

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built to transport the logs,
and the industry moved west.

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In time, a pattern emerged.
They cut out New England

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and moved to the south. They cut out the
south and moved to the lake states.

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They cut out the lake states
and moved to the northwest.

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But there were people who
recognized the destruction

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and the need to preserve the forest. Gifford Pinchot was
the first professionally trained American forester.

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[music]

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Pinchot studied in Europe. There were no
American schools of forestry in the 1880s.

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George Vanderbilt hired
Pinchot to manage Biltmore,

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Vanderbilt\'s estate in
western North Carolina.

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There, Pinchot proved that selection
cutting - choosing tree by tree,

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which to extract and which to leave
behind – could both improve the forest

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and be profitable. Recognizing
the need to conserve timber

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and balance with its
use, Congress, in 1891,

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established forest reserves to improve and
protect the forest, to protect watersheds

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and to furnish the supply of timber.
In 1906,

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these forest reserves became national
forests under the leadership of Pinchot.

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His protective conservation principles

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guided Forest Service policy
for the next 40 years.

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After World War II,

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the balance between conservation
and timber sales was disrupted.

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Veterans returned home,
the economy was booming

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with massive housing construction.

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The Forest Service opened the national
forest to unprecedented timber extraction.

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Before the war, less than 2% of the
nation\'s wood came from national forests.

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But during the \'50s, timber
harvest just about tripled

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from three to almost nine billion board feet.
Everything about the Forest Service changed.

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Yes, there are extra forest dollars

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growing in the soil, in the plants
and in the trees themselves,

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contributing to a better way of
life and security for all of us.

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The ranger\'s job in planning the layout

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of the transportation system for a
timber sale is the most important part

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of national forest administration.
To get this increased cut out,

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methods like clearcutting
prevailed on the national forests

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where every specie of tree,
young and old, is cut at once –

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gashing the forest ecosystem.
Retired forester Walton Smith

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witnessed these changes on the Nantahala
and Monongahela national forests.

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You know, always in the past,
on the national forest,

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we\'d had a system of selection cutting, where
you go in and cut more of the mature timber

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and leave the young growth to come on. All
the harvesting was done where we maintained

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a continuous canopy and
had good game populations

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and we had hunting and recreation along with
timber harvesting at the same time. Back to why

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they do the clearcutting, it\'s the easiest thing
in the world. You don\'t even need a forester.

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You go out and paint around 20 to 40 acres

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and you turn to logger Lewis in there and say, \"Cut it
all, right down to the ground, you can\'t damage anything.\"

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But if you\'re going to
selectively cut this forest,

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you have to have a forester who
knows each of the species,

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can select the proper trees to be cut and
more importantly, to leave the proper trees

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to take care of the
biodiversity and the wildlife.

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In the 1960s, the Forest Service
developed the multiple-use concept,

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which gave the illusion of satisfying
all competing uses of the forest.

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But the clearcutting continued.

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Even in the Pisgah National Forest,

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formed from Vanderbilt\'s Biltmore estate,
the very forest for which Pinchot developed

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his principles of forestry 100 years ago.

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Foresters, basically in my experience, believe the trees
are there to be cut down. They call it a harvest,

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but it means cut them down. Brock Evans
is critical of the Forest Service.

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For 25 years, I have been hearing those
people say, \"Oh, we\'ve changed our ways.

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Oh, we\'re gonna do it differently from now on. Oh, that
was a mistake, we\'re sorry, we won\'t ever do that again.\"

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And they do it again and again and again.

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So, I want scenic forest, I want clear
running streams that\'s full of fish,

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abundant wildlife, scenic beauty
and just a nice place to visit

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and a healthy forest.
But the Forest Service

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is still in the timber business
and we\'re still gonna sell timber

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to meet the needs of the American
people within the new forest plans.

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Among those calling change are over

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1,000 Forest Service employees.
Jeff DeBonis started

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the Association of Forest Service
Employees for Environmental Ethics.

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We felt it was not meeting its obligation to the public
trust. It was not managing the forest in a sustainable basis.

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To put it bluntly, it was basically
a timber cutting agency and it…

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it cut timber at the expense of other
resources: wildlife values, fisheries values.

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It cut to the point where we saw, I saw
personally, lots of environmental degradation

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in terms of erosion, in terms
of stream channel instability,

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washouts because of excessive road-building,
just a lot of environmental damage.

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Now, the Forest Service has a concept that says there
is a… there is an amount of allowable degradation

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that we can do in order to get the timber harvest out.
Well, a lot of us feel that that allowable degradation

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has gone away too far. There\'s been way too
much damage as a result of getting this timber,

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this inflated timber harvest level out. And we
just felt that it was time for us to do something,

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to say something, to speak up. So, here we are sitting
at this old-growth conference hearing once again,

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all of this good research, hearing once again management
people getting up there and saying, things are groovy,

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things are really moving along, the Forest Service is
really changing. And you could almost feel the palp…

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the palpable feel of people ready… I
mean, 400 Forest Service employees

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in the audience, you could… I could just tell
if one person just started going like this…

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\"we want change\", the whole audience would
have erupted. There was that much tension

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among the Forest Service employees in that… in that group.
Like any large bureaucracy, they tend to not want to change.

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They are established in their mode of
operation. They get a lot of their funding

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through the timber appropriations process.
So there\'s a lot of just

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playing dead bureaucracy that doesn\'t wanna change even
though they know they have to. There\'s also a value system

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in the Forest Service, that\'s perpetuated
through forestry schools in the past.

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And a lot of the people that are in management positions
now, went through forestry schools in the \'50s and \'60s,

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when it was the thing to do to \"manage
forest for individual tree production\"

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to getting the most of wood off a piece of ground.
So, there\'s that value system that still hasn\'t…

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hasn\'t really changed within the Forest Service.
The public value system is changing must faster

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than that of the government or the agencies, like the Forest
Service. In fact, some of us are thinking the US Forest Service

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should not be the one to manage these
forests. It should be some other agency,

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maybe a conservation agency. The citizens of New Zealand got so
upset about three or four years ago about their Forest Service

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that they passed a special act at parliament over there
to split the Forest Service in two, and they gave most

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of the lands to another agency to be protected and just
the tree farm to the loggers, who are the Forest Service.

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I think we should do the same thing over here. The Forest
Service, I don\'t believe, is fit to manage the public forest

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because all they wanna do
is cut down the trees.

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Probably the gravest threat to Smokey

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is from Forest Service mismanagement.

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The \"forest circus\" don\'t need Smokey anymore. All
right! He\'s done his job and his service well,

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though as far as we\'re concerned,
they all can have him, all right.

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Whereas the forest circus,
here it is, gonna unveil

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their new mascot.

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Stumpy the Stump!

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[music]

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Stumpy, is something,
we in the forest circus

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have been creating every
day for a long time.

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And they\'re… they\'re
almost dumb, they\'re weak

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and adaptable and stumps
will be here forever.

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Like Woodsy (inaudible) said,

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this land was made for you and Stumpy.

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[music]

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One reason forests are so
valuable is that they harbor

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rate biological diversity.

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[music]

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When astronauts leave the earth,

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their lives are utterly dependent on their
propulsion systems, their communication systems

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and their life-support systems.
But here on earth,

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the life-support system, as
we need, are living systems,

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the animals and plants and microorganisms.
The diverse living things of this earth,

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interacting with one another,
clear our air, clear our water,

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breakdown our wastes and provide us with all
the food we eat. We are utterly dependent

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on the life-support systems of this earth.
And the life-support systems

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are biological diversity. The
giant trees of an ancient forest

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perform valuable ecosystem services
that we don\'t even usually think about.

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Douglas fir trees, 200-250 feet
tall, can have 60 million needles,

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with a surface area of about an acre.
These needles are a very efficient trap

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for pollutant particles and every one
of those particles that a tree traps

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and uses for nutrients, is a particle
that doesn\'t enter our lungs.

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This is an important consideration at a time when
all Americans are concerned about clean air.

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And when we look around at nature, what we see is
that what makes it healthy and whole and resilient,

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it is the diversity and the connections
within the system and the…

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the complexities of the system. These are
things we have been very busily getting rid of

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and are the things that we
have to stop getting rid of

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and start preserving for the future.
We don\'t know how much,

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how many species we might lose before we
begin to really see a destabilizing effect

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
on the biosphere. Someone has used the analogy
of pulling rivets out of an airplane,

00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
you can pull rivets out of an airplane for
a while and they\'ll still stay in the air.

00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
But after some point, you
don\'t wanna be on an airplane

00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
in which you\'ve pulled more rivets on it.

00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
It\'s unfortunate that we can\'t see the forest in cross-section, because
if we could, we could see this tremendously diverse and complicated,

00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
below-ground, underground system that
links the forest together. In fact,

00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
between 50% to 80% of the net carbon fixed
by this tree is diverted below ground,

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
so you\'re seeing only a small portion
of the forest. And the other portion

00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
is this tremendous web of life beneath the soil
surface and that\'s what recycles nutrients,

00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
picks up moisture, protects against
pathogens and keeps the system healthy.

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
Keeping the forest healthy
protects our biosphere.

00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
We are now seeing how important the forests
are in global issues such climate change,

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
oxygen and water resources. Scientists now,

00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
that there are many reasons for protecting ancient
forests, it\'s not just spotted owls. Here is one of them.

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
This tree is called the Pacific yew
and its bark contains a chemical

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
that has a very important property.
It\'s a natural anticancer agent.

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
And in clinical test at the National Cancer Institute
it\'s proven very effective against ovarian cancer,

00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
non-small cell lung cancer and malignant
melanoma. The problem is that Pacific yews

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
are now a very rare species. A century of
logging has destroyed the ancient forests,

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
the habitat where these trees live. They\'re so
rare now that it\'s hard for the Cancer Institute

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
to get enough to continue its clinical trials,
because we\'ve been logging the forests

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
in a way that destroys them, not
in a way that regenerates them.

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
George Atiyeh is a former logger.

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
Now, he volunteers as a pilot for
Project Lighthawk to show how

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
overcutting on our national forests is destroying
the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest.

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
[sil.]

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
It just takes getting up in an airplane and then seeing it
from above to realize that places like this are very special,

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
because the trees aren\'t there anymore.
(inaudible).

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
[sil.]

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
Just 5% is left, 5%, that\'s all

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
that we have left and we\'re still continuing business as
usual and the trees are still coming out of these forests

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
as fast as possible. What you see
when you look out the window,

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
that\'s the same from British Columbia all the way
to Northern California. It\'s just one big clearcut

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
or one patch after another. It\'s like kind
of like a (inaudible) blanket right now.

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
I like to get everybody in the United States
up in an airplane and show them what\'s

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
becoming their national forests and these
national treasures. I think this insanity

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
would stop tomorrow. This ancient tree
behind us, this is over 1,000 years old.

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
But like most of the ancient forest in the
Pacific Northwest, it\'s not protected.

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
These trees are truly national treasures. They\'re
our last living link with the middle ages.

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
And yet, in 15 minutes, with a chainsaw,
some fool can come up and knock it down

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
and we would the plywood and
(inaudible) out of it. I\'ve spent

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
the last 20 years of my life trying to protect
this particular piece of forest called local creek

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
and it\'s been a running
battle and yet, still,

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
this is a national forest, but it is not
protected. The Forest Service may, at any day,

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
decide to come in here and sell
this off to lumber company

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
and destroy this whole forest.

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
One of the things, I
think, was most profound

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
and so I\'d looked at clearcuts that have been cut 20 years ago in the
national forest, clearcuts that are right up here in the top of the creek,

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
they are not… there is no trees growing there. Twenty
years later, they don\'t have any trees growing.

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
The soils are all gone. It looks to me
very much like what we see in Brazil.

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
I mean, where you cut down the forest, and
you burn it off, and nothing comes back.

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
That\'s what really made me say, uh-ah,
this is not a renewable resource,

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
especially up in these particular
places and we have to stop.

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
[sil.]

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
Trees have been thought of as a valuable resource
only after they were cut down for timber.

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
But scientists now understand the
real values a forest provides

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
can\'t be measured in board feet.
The true value

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
of an ancient forest is lost
once the trees are felled,

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
but not everyone agrees. They\'re all old-growth timber,
just dying timber, so it\'s gonna die out anyway,

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
so why not go in and take that timber
and then you leave the… you know,

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
the… some of the other trees till they
mature and then you take them out.

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
An old-growth tree is just a drying tree to me. That
tree is gonna die anyway, so why not harvest it?

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
Well, it\'s, you know, harvestable.
Well, then wait till… Why let it die

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
and rot than fall on them now? An old
log like this, not only has roots,

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
it has many microbes, many insects
and in fact, probably has far

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
more living cells in it now, when it\'s
been down on the ground for 150 years

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
then it did when it was standing up as part of a living tree. And
the reason for that is very simple. They\'re great water reservoirs.

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
And when the dry season hit these
forests, as it does every year,

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
this is where the moisture is to be found,
therefore this is where the life is to be found.

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
[sil.]

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
People in the timber industry will tell you that if
we don\'t all the giant trees now, they\'ll all rot

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
and fall to the ground and go to waste. That
argument is wrong for two reasons. For one,

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
if they do die and fall to the ground, they\'re
valuable. But second, more important reason is

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
these trees are long-lived. They
live 500 years, 800, 1,000,

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
sometimes 3,000 years. They are not going
to die anytime soon unless we kill them.

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
[sil.]

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
The main argument for continuing
the rapid pace of cutting

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
on our national forests is to
maintain jobs. We\'ve all logged

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
so many years and that\'s our trade.
And if it all sheds down,

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
we\'re gonna have to turn around and start right from the
bottom again. If they can preserve the… the spotted owl

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
or… they can preserve man as well. When a mill closes or
something, I just kind of close my eyes and turn around and say,

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
you know, what\'s going on here? You know, there\'s not really
much, you go up and you talk to the guy that worked there.

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
Here, have been there 18 years getting ready to retire,
he\'s down the road. He\'s got five kids and a house payment

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
and two cars. What\'s he gonna do, you know?

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
And so, I… I just try not to talk to it. I just
kind of close my eyes to it and say, god, you know,

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
what… what\'s up next? Who\'s… Who\'s closing
next? Who\'s, you know… Try to look ahead.

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
What causes a problem in… in
looking at the long-term versus

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
the short-term is when people focus too much
on the forest as a source of immediate wealth

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
and immediate employment. We
have to be concerned about

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
people\'s livelihoods, their ability to make a living
out of things that come from the woods. But when we…

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
when we try to use the national
forests as… as a social program

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
to generate employment in rural areas as a…

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
as a priority instead of thinking about the long-term
health of the forest and its sustainability

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
for all the things that people might expect, that\'s
when things get out of balance a little bit.

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
The timber industry has been very effective

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
in refocusing attention away from public timber
subsidies and the need for sustainable forestry.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
They have launched ad campaigns
around job loss issues.

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
Timber has been in our blood for generations
and hard work has been the way of life.

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
But hard work isn\'t enough anymore.
If people in Washington, DC,

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
don\'t understand we\'re hurting. So let\'s stick together
in the Northwest, get behind our members of Congress

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
and take one single message to Washington,
DC, there are people here too.

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
Let our representatives know.
We are counting on them.

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
This discussion of the workers
caught in the middle,

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
I… I think is very unfair that people have
said that the Forest Products Industry,

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
from the independent manufacturers
up to the Fortune 500 companies,

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
are playing on the fears of the workers by saying,
look at all these jobs we\'re gonna be losing.

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
But do the workers on the timber
industry share the same interests?

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
Many jobs have already been
lost to industry automation.

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
High-tech lasers are used.

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
Automated assembly lines

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
carve logs into boards or
peel them into veneers.

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
The timber industry says they\'re concerned about jobs, but they\'re…
they\'re automating, they\'re exporting lots of logs overseas – logs,

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
not finished products. So, if the timber
industry is really concerned about jobs,

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
they will be behaving differently. In
fact, they\'re concerned about profit.

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
The same industry that
decries the loss of jobs

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
is profiting heavily by exporting
whole logs. Old-growth logs

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
bring nearly twice the price in Japan that they
do in the United States. Small private mills,

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
here, can\'t compete. In 1991,

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
over three billion board
feet of logs were exported

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
from the Pacific Northwest.

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
Exporting whole logs reduces the work
available for local mills and wipes out jobs.

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
Analysts believe that by
cutting log exports in half,

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
we could save 20,000 to 30,000 jobs.

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
Shipping off our valuable resources

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
only increases industry pressure to cut more
trees from the depleted ancient forests.

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
A relatively small number
of people in Washington,

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
Oregon and California make their living,
cutting ancient trees and those ancient trees

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
are fast disappearing. So the question we have
to ask ourselves is: are we willing to eliminate

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
the greatest conifers in the world, the
most remarkable coniferous forest on earth

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
to provide a few more years of employment of
people who are gonna be out of work anyway

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
when those forests are gone? And they\'re
going fast. When whalers sailed

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
the high seas and killed the great
whales, they made a lot of money.

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
As a matter of fact, many New England families
that are prominent and wealthy to this day

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
owe their money to whaling.
But, as whales were depleted

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
and pushed toward extinction,
whalers fought tooth and nail

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
to preserve their privilege to kill the greatest
animals, the largest animals on this earth.

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
Now, we\'re seeing exactly the same thing
happening in the Pacific Northwest.

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
The people, the small number of people, who\'ve
made a great amount of money in that land

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
and the people who work for them
are fighting tooth and nail

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
for their privilege, what they
call their privilege, to kill

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
the last great virgin forests on this
planet. Oh, look at this! New forestry

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
or new perspectives is the Forest Service\'s
latest forest management approach.

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
It attempts to keep forests relatively
intact while extracting timber.

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
We\'re trying to make some changes.

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
We are making changes in the Forest Service.
And this program, we call \"new perspectives\",

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
is basically how can we
manage the national forest

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
in a more environmentally
sensitive way and perpetuate

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
all these values that
people value in the forest

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
through time. I believe
the most important thing

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
we can do is to manage for
complexity, because complexity

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
is the key to the resilience or
the robustness of these systems.

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
And like we did in this down here where
you manage for a wide variety of species,

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
both plant species and animal species, and
maintain those essential below ground organisms.

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
That\'s the key. You look at this forest.

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
You\'ve harvested timber. You maintain the root
systems intact for watershed, for quality.

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
You\'ve got a great species mix coming in.

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
You\'ve got big trees that can resist fire with their thick
barks. You\'ve stimulated a lot of natural regeneration.

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
You have (inaudible). You
maintain the soil humus layers.

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
All these components of the forest that keep them
healthy, you have hardwood species coming in,

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
which are really important and the types of organisms
that they support. You have a complex forest

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
and it\'s been managed. There is no reason
why we can\'t do that on all forest acres.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
[sil.]

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
While some ecologists find new forestry
promising, others feel that old-growth forests

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
have already been overcut and that
unless there is a fundamental change,

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
Forest Service policies,
no matter how enlightened,

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
will lead to the same excessive
cutting on our national forests.

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
Career Forest Service employees are caught in
the conflict over the high timber sales quotas

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
and meeting environmental laws
which seek to protect forest lands

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
and endangered species. The Forest
Service has lost its historic role

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
as a leader in a good conservation ethic and
public trust management of the national forest.

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
They have lost that. And one of the… the great things that\'s
happening now is that there are Forest Service employees

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
all over the United States that are starting
to speak up publically. But there is a price

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
to pay for those who are more loyal
to the public trust than the agency

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
or those that blow the whistle. I do.
Nowhere is this more apparent

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
than in the Northern Rockies
region of the national forest.

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
John Mumma, a wildlife biologist and
31-year veteran of the Forest Service,

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
was removed as regional forester for
planning to reduce timber sale targets

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
after he and Forest Service
supervisors concluded

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
that they couldn\'t meet environmental
standards for watersheds

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
and wildlife under current forest plans.

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
Political pressures that I\'ve experienced are related to a
number of things, but it includes compliance with timber,

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
including timber harvesting in the
forest I have responsibility for.

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
These targets are pursuant to Forest
Service estimates which are now,

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
in some cases, unattainable because meeting
them would require us to violate other laws.

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
The Forest Service defends
existing forest plans

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
even when they sacrifice
environmental guidelines.

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
We\'re gonna have some stick to it (inaudible) to these
plans and not just go off the next year and say,

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
well, now we can\'t carry
out those forest plans.

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
And I\'ve been using the forest plans
and dealing with the Congress

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
and seeing what needs to be done. And so, we\'re
either committed to those forest plans or not.

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
And, I\'m committed to them.

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
The Bush administration through it
surrogates, at the Department of Agriculture

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
and its subordinate agency, the United States
Forest Service, support the status quo.

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
To the extent that harvesting is
prescribed by the forest plans,

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
over the next 20 to 30 years, it will necessarily
consist mainly of old-growth timber.

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
While the administration has backed
away from hard decisions regarding

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
the fate of the ancient forests of the Pacific
Northwest, they have convened a so-called \"Guard Squad\"

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
that can overrule
protection plans called for

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
under the Endangered Species Act.

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
The burden of action has fallen
to the United States Congress.

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
While Congress has heard much testimony
that deeply divided body has failed

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
to act to change Forest Service
policies and practices.

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
While many see the need for reform, others are
more concerned about short-term job losses

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
in their districts than the long-term
health of forest ecosystems.

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
Meanwhile, as the crisis continues
year after year unresolved,

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
the remaining stands of ancient forest
shrink and the unique biological diversity

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
moves from threatened to endangered. Now the
dependent enterprises are weakened by uncertainty,

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
workers are losing their jobs and rural
economies deteriorate. Without action,

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
both people and forests are hurt.

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
Nobody… Nobody is concerned about the elimination of jobs and
people, I guess, anymore. All we want to do is for some…

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
some scientist somewhere to say that
we\'ve got to stop harvesting timber

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
in the Northwest. I hear my time is up, Mr.
Chairman, but I\'ll tell you this.

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
There are a lot of people whose
jobs, 71 communities in Oregon,

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
who depend upon the timber
industry, over half of the income,

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
you\'re gotta put them out of work, you\'re gonna
create refugees. And I don\'t see the purpose of it.

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
Others see the potential for
many jobs in forest restoration.

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
Again, restoration will be a prominent component of any management
strategy, I think, that scientists would recommend for that…

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
that region. And, I think,
restoration in general offers

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
an opportunity to employ a lot more people than
cutting down the last remaining old-growth forests.

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
From testimony, it\'s clear

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
the spotted owl is not the only endangered species
affected by the loss of old-growth forests.

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
It\'s not just the spotted owl, it is not
just the collection of endangered species,

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
it is a problem of endangered ancient forest
ecosystem. The choices are now clear,

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
and it\'s… it\'s really an easy choice to
make if you take the long-term view.

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
And so, Congress is going to make that choice,
either consciously to save these forests

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
or through an action let these forests
be cut down. The basic problem

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
is that for too long, for years and
years, a small band of politicians

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
from the Pacific Northwest have been meeting mostly
in closed sessions in the appropriations committees

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
and making very basic decisions at the bidding
of the timber industry which are resulting

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
then in the extermination of this national treasure, the
ancient forest. We\'ve gone to the appropriations committees.

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
We pleaded with them. We begged and
we said, \"Please don\'t do this.

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
These are national treasures. Here\'s our maps. Here\'s our documentation.
We\'re losing it. You\'re cutting it faster than the Amazon Forest right now.

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
It\'s… Wildlife recreation all these things are important
too. Please don\'t it. Here\'s what we recommend instead.\"

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
We got the back of the hand. The
national forest belong to everybody.

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
In that respect, they also belong to
these communities out here that derive

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
their basic industry from.
And I truly believe

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
that if this issue of public land
use were left in the region or left

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
in the local communities, then
we could find a solution,

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
then we could work through it as a community. We do it
through county government, we do it through city councils,

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
we do it through the state government. I
believe that we could reach the comprise

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
that we need… or the balance
that needs to be there.

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
The timber industry is very powerful in the Pacific
Northwest. And we decided several years ago,

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
we\'re going to save these forests. It would have
to be the people of the nation saving them,

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
not environmentalists or… or Oregonians. The
politics is just aren\'t there in Oregon.

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
Expecting the Oregon
congressional delegation to

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
rationally deal with the end of ancient forest cutting
in 1990 is like expecting the Mississippi delegation

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
in 1960 to deal rationally
with the end of segregation.

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
Both delegations may know that it\'s wrong and it\'s about
over under any circumstance, but politically they\'re…

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
they\'re powerless to really deal with the
issue. For a long time I thought that

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
villain in this whole thing was the Forest
Service or maybe the timber companies.

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
And the more I thought about it, I realized
the villain is the United States Congress.

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
They were the trustees. They\'re still are the
trustees in the national forest and they manage

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
the trust fund for people of the
United States. And in order to further

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
their own political careers, they\'ve robbed the trust fund.
That what we see here is very similar to what happened

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
for the savings and loans.
And the Northwest delegation

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
has been robbing the trust fund in
order to keep our economy pumped up,

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
very much like other parts of the country have
had defense contracts to public work projects.

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
Our delegation brought back free
or very low cost federal timber.

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
So, you can only rob the trust fund for so long
and you\'re gonna be out of trees. We\'re lucky

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
we live in a political system that gives full play to the
expressions of the people who wanna do something different.

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
Every national park that was ever existing right now was
fought for just like the ancient forest are being fought for

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
and was protected by people who care. The role
of the public is… is extremely important,

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
particularly now because it\'s… it\'s the public that
is having the… that is becoming increasingly aware

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
of what\'s going on on the national forest.
And they\'re having a major affect

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
on changing the politics in Congress. There are
senators and congressmen now from the East,

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
from the Midwest, from the South, that are taking an interest,
for example, in the Northwest old-growth controversy.

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
And that\'s unprecedented. In
the Southern Appalachians,

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
like in many regions of
the national forest,

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
clearcutting is environmentally
destructive and it\'s being subsidized

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
with your tax dollars. It\'s
called \"below cost timber sales.\"

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
The Forest Service loses money by
not charging the timber companies

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
which cut the trees, the full cost of
road-building and preparing for the sale.

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
North Carolina\'s Pisgah Forest

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
is one of 74 national
forests that consistently

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
have below cost sales at
the taxpayers\' expense.

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
Back when I was active in the Forest Service
in the \'50s, we didn\'t have any such thing

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
as what we call below cost sales. All of the sales
will be made with an (inaudible) management

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
and selection harvesting made money. And
we put more money into the treasury

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
and Forest Service used to pay all of its
people. Whereas in the last two years,

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
Nantahala and Pisgah National
Forest has lost over

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
$2.5 million each year on the
clearcutting that they\'ve been pursuing.

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
This combination of environmental
destruction financed

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
through tax dollars, sparks a
great deal of controversy.

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
I\'ve never seen any clearcut around here,

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
looks too good here. I\'m
(inaudible) ever since as a kid

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
and it ain\'t looking that good to me right now.
Your kids will probably never see (inaudible)

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
it will never grow back up,
because it\'d taken 100 years.

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
When you cut everything to the ground,
you ain\'t got nothing left for them.

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
I\'d rather see the beautiful forests
as to see the clearcutting.

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
It\'s more valuable to the…

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
to everyone for the sake of
the beauty of the community

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
and… and for all the
hunters and the animals.

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
The Western North Carolina
Alliance is organizing citizens

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
who want to change forest
practices in the region.

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
(inaudible) an organization that somebody that\'s a bear hunter
would like to join as well as people that are environmentalists

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
or wouldn\'t… wouldn\'t like to hunt.
We\'ve got housewives, farmers,

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
just a broad spectrum of people.
Every day people

00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
are environmentalists. Everybody cares about the
quality of their community and the quality of life.

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
They like to fish or hunt or gather berries
or… Many of them work in the woods,

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
but as Walton said, they just don\'t
see the sense of clearcutting.

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
The alliance mobilized public opposition
with the \"Cut the Clearcutting\" campaign.

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
Organizing a petition drive
and public rallies to prove

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
to the Forest Service they
were speaking for the public.

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
Then it\'s maybe for us to come back
home to a way of evaluating life

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
that considers things like peace and beauty and
permanence and… and each other\'s benefit and welfare.

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
Maybe it\'s time…

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
Maybe it\'s time for us to remember that the
(inaudible) we\'re really speaking hereto is whether

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
or not we are being graced with the privilege of pursuing
life, liberty and happiness without being cut off

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
at the past by a very small
group of self-interest folks

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
who treat this land as nothing but a resource to
be used for their own personal short-term benefit.

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
The alliance gathered

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
15,000 names on a petition and presented
it to the local Forest Service supervisor.

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:18.000
[music]

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
We, come today, Supervisor Dahl,
bringing you not only ourselves

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
but the names of over 15,000
citizens from throughout

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
Western North Carolina in the region.
They are asking you

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
and the Forest Service, and especially our congressional
representatives who give you your budgets,

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
to manage our national forests more
effectively for multiple use. Here\'s the…

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
The alliance\'s public campaign left an impression
on Forest Service supervisor Bjorn Dahl.

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:58.000
Well, we certainly had a great outcry and we\'ve had thousands
of names on petitions, we\'ve had peaceful demonstrations,

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
we\'ve had people chaining
themselves to our door,

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
in… in my office, to show
how much they care about

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
what their views are. We have,
in fact, recently published

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
an amendment to the forest planning, where
we have removed the words clearcutting

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
as the optimum timber harvest method
and we\'ve replaced it by good thinking

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
and site specific analysis and evaluation
will determine the harvest method.

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
Like citizen-based forest watch moves
nationwide, the alliance is continuing

00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
to work with and monitor the Forest Service
to ensure that their changes in policy

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
translate to changes in practices.

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
While Congress debates these
issues, we are losing

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
tens of thousands of acres
of ancient forests.

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
People like George Atiyeh are
determined to change federal policies

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
which are obliterating old-growth forests.
One of the most important benefits

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
of this place or this forest are the
spiritual values that they provide.

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
This place is my church. These trees

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
are my cathedral. I walk through
them and this is where my peace is.

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
And I found in my life that most
people have a hole inside them,

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
and they\'re always trying to fill
it up with different things.

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
Some people try to fill it up with dollars
and some people do it through their work

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
or some people take drugs.
But I haven\'t found anybody

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
who can come up to one of these forests and walkout
away from everybody and sit down in the moss

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
and look up to the tree, it
still has a hole, it\'s gone.

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
These trees, (inaudible)

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
this ancient forest in the Pacific Northwest is owned by the
people of the United States, these are national forests.

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
And yet, they\'ve been managed to
the benefit of a few mill owners

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
and spurt local economies and they forgot

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
who really truly owns them. The people
of the United States own these forests.

00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
Like a lot of people in Oregon started
out as part of the timber industry.

00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
My family has been involved in timber
industry for four generations now.

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
And it\'s been very hard to make the change,

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
to understand that our way of life has changed that the trees that
we\'re depending upon and the forest we\'re depending upon are gone.

00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
And, as a nation, we have to make the
decision: do we want to continue

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
to cut the last of the trees
and… but no place else to go?

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
Or do we save them? We save something for
our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren.

00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
Logging has been a traditional
way of life in Oregon.

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
Change does not come easily nor
is it easy for those who seek it.

00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
I guess, I\'ve paid a tremendous price.

00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
I think the reward is something worth it
for me, because these trees still stand

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
and it\'s still beautiful. But it\'s been very hard. I mean,
I\'ve had a lot of death threats. People have threatened me.

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
They\'ve threatened my family. My daughter

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
was held down in school and they tied yellow ribbons
around her, which is the symbol of the timber industry.

00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
When I go and watch my children - my boys play football at
the high school - nobody will sit within two benches of me.

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
My businesses have been boycotted.

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
They\'ve made it very hard to stand up. At
the same time, I didn\'t have any choice.

00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.999
I had to. People need to recognize

00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
that we have to stay in
touch with the earth.

00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
It is truly what will fill up the
hole and sustain a spiritually

00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.999
and physically and I don\'t
wanna see that destroyed

00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
in the pursuit of (inaudible) money dollar.
I think it has to be saved.

00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
Beth Howell works to protect

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
Oregon\'s Siskiyou Mountains.
She argues that, as consumers,

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
we play a critical role in the
health of the environment.

00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
I think the average person can just look
around and say, \"Wow, in my own lifetime,

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
the destruction I have seen in
the environment is tremendous!\"

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
We are the consumers of the greed.

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
We are the consumers of the products

00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
that these forests are being raped for.
And it\'s up to us

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
to change the way we live. The world
isn\'t there for our convenience.

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
It is our life-support
system and we have to live

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
in harmony with it if we wanna
continue to be supported.

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
Forests are… are one of the great
renewable resources that we have.

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
There are… There are kind of land and… and a
community of organisms that can provide us

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
with… with things that we need
like wood and water and recreation

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
and continue to renew that year after
year after year. But there are limits

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
to how much you can take from that forest and
still have it be a healthy renewable system.

00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
We have to all live sustainably.
We all have to live

00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
within the system that the planet provides.
And if we start destroying that very system,

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
all the money in the world won\'t help
you if you don\'t have clean water and…

00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
and air to breathe and… and the beauty of
these forests around you. Now, we\'re learning

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
what our ancestors probably knew
very well that when we look around

00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.999
at what\'s happening in the globe
today there are forces set in motion

00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.999
by us that we can\'t control, we
cannot control nature, we\'re…

00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:04.999
we\'re part of nature and rather
than standing outside of it,

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
and that\'s what we have to learn, and
then we\'ll have to learn what do we do,

00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:14.999
how do we utilize nature in
the same time preserve it

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:19.999
for future generations. The toughest
challenge is to get people to work together.

00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
The jobs versus environment issue

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
has done nothing but to
polarize people and to really…

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
We\'re at the time now where we need to forget those agendas and
begin working together towards a solution. We live in a democracy

00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:39.999
and I hope every American feels that

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.999
they are part-owner of these
national forest and that

00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
they get involved and they let know
the Forest Service. But everybody

00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.999
know what they expect out of these
national forest. As Woody Guthrie said,

00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:59.999
this land is your land. The American
people have to make the decision

00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:04.999
of whether they wanna protect the
forests of this country or not.

00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.999
The way you make that decision is by
writing or calling your Congress member

00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.999
or senator and telling him or her what
you want. People are becoming aware

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:19.999
and writing their congressmen and pressuring their
congressmen for change on national forest policy

00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.999
stating that these are my national forest as well
and I want to have a say on what\'s going on,

00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
are having an effect, definitely having an effect,
and… and not their local level, there\'s community…

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
community and… and grassroots movements

00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.999
that are becoming the watchdogs of the Forest Service
and other federal agencies that have a dramatic effect

00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.999
on those agencies directly. We
have great power, we\'re humans,

00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.999
to bring change to this world. But we also have
responsibility that goes along with that power.

00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:54.999
These forests have been
on earth for millions,

00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.999
for tens of millions of years. We
have the power to destroy them.

00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:05.000
Do we have the sense not to destroy them?

00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:09.999
Funding for this program was provided
by: the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation,

00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:14.999
the W. Alton Jones Foundation,

00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:19.999
the George Gund Foundation,

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:25.000
and The Pew Charitable Trusts.