The timber industry this winter launched a $1.5
million campaign in the Pacific Northwest to derail President
Clinton’s Option 9 forest plan and lift court injunctions on timber
sales. In addition to radio and television ads, the industry
created three citizen committees in Washington, Oregon and northern
California that have sent mailings to 1.5 million households. The
committees’ founding members were primarily drawn from the
non-timber business community and include the chairman of the
Boeing Company, the publisher of the Spokane Spokesman-Review, and
prominent members of the AFL-CIO. But the campaign is financed by
the American Forest and Paper Association. The mailings by the
Oregon and Washington Citizens to Protect the Northwest Economy
predict that Clinton’s plan will cause the loss of up to 65,000
jobs, place a strain on safety-net programs, and wreak havoc on
banks, retail and service businesses. Conservationists criticized
the industry for resorting to scare tactics it has used in the
past. “The packaging may appear different,” said Dave Crandall,
executive director of the Inland Empire Public Lands Council, “but
the product remains the same.”
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Timber industry mounts an offense.
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