An unearthed federal report reveals that Kaibab
Forest Products Co. deliberately stole more than 1,200 trees from
the Kaibab National Forest north of the Grand Canyon. According to
the 1992 report, made public after a Freedom of Information Act
request by Robin Silver of the Southwest Center for Biological
Diversity, a cozy relationship existed between the timber company
and Forest Service. Agency employees accepted discounted lumber and
Christmas turkeys from Kaibab employees, said the Inspector General
for the Agriculture Department. Loggers also disturbed a clearly
marked archaeology site, damaged a raptor habitat enclosure and
failed to complete road improvements which the Forest Service paid
them to make. Although the timber firm agreed to pay a $300,000
fine in December 1994 for timber stolen between 1987 and 1990, the
company called its unauthorized logging an accident. Director
Kieran Suckling of the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity
believes Kaibab got off far too easily. He wants the company to pay
$6 million for the stolen trees and wants federal prosecution of
negligent Forest Service employees. Says Suckling: “There is no way
in the world that over many years (Forest Service) timber sale
administrators could not have noticed those trees were being cut.”
*Diane Kelly
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Turkeys for timber.
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