TIMBER SALES LOSE MORE THAN $2 MILLION IN VA. NATIONAL FORESTS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 10, 1993                   TAG: 9303100136
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
TIMBER SALES LOSE MORE THAN $2 MILLION IN VA. NATIONAL FORESTS
Both the Jefferson and George Washington national forests have reported 1992 losses of more than $1 million in timber sales, a practice President Clinton is trying to halt.
Spokesmen for the Wilderness Society and other environmental groups, longtime critics of what they call excessive timber cutting in national forests, have applauded Clinton's economic program, which includes a provision to end unprofitable timber sales.
Peter Kirby of the Wilderness Society in Atlanta said the Clinton initiative will save taxpayers' funds and the environment.
The Jefferson forest reported sales of $649,604 against a cost of $1.8 million to administer the sales, or a loss of about $1.2 million. For each dollar spent, the forest collected 34 cents, the agency said.
From its Harrisonburg headquarters, the George Washington forest said its shortfall was $1.1 million, down about $87,000 from a year ago.
The Jefferson reported a decline in timber volume, blamed on a wet logging season and a change in its environmental analysis process, which hindered offering timber for sale, the agency said.
This was the fourth annual loss, indicating the forest is moving the wrong way, said Jim Loesel of Roanoke, a spokesman for the Citizens Task Force for National Forest Management.
The forest "ought to reduce the size of its programs and concentrate on smaller sites that are more productive," he said. Pulpwood, accounting for about two-thirds of the Jefferson's timber sales, has a price of one-sixth to one-tenth of larger logs used for saw timber or veneer, Loesel said.
Kirby, who is familiar with the Jefferson's topography, said the main problem is that timber is cut on steep, rugged Western Virginia land that "is not suitable for intensive timber production."
Kirby suggests a reduction to about half of the present timber program. A viable, modest timber program could be maintained on flatter land, he said.
Steve Bennett, an Alleghany County logging company owner and a founder of the Appalachian Forest Management Group, said the whole problem is the bureaucracy "and the tons of regulations" that he said raise the cost of preparing timber sales to $600 an acre in national forests, while "it costs me about $25 an acre."
Loggers are "as upset as anybody. It [the forest] should be making a profit," Bennett said.
The national forests "have every type of `ology' involved - water hydrology, geology and archaeology - and they're all charged to the timber-cutting program," he added.
David Olson of the Jefferson staff said his agency is trying "to continue to improve the difference between costs and revenues" from timber cutting.
The forest is "looking real closely" at the approximately 30 jobs tied to timber sales and to combining jobs if feasible, he said.
Kirby of the Wilderness Society said the amount a national forest typically spends on timber sales is more than it spends for such operations as protection of watershed, fish and wildlife.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB