22 Aug 2004
Tree farmers enlisted to fight logging rule

An excellent illustration of unseen consequences - opening huge tracts of Federal forests to logging will hammer small tree farmers, who can't bid on the contracts to cut there because of their small size. So the rights will go to the large corporations, and the little guy gets squeezed out by falling prices.

Same thing happens in the beef industry: large cattle ranches out west pay only nominal amounts for their use of vast amounts of Federally owned range, whereas I own all my pastures and pay taxes on them. In effect, I'm forced to subsidize my competitors, while being barred from bidding to graze Federal lands both by their lack of proximity to me and by the small size of my operation.

People who think the Republican Party is a proponent of the "free market" are living in a dream world.

Mark Woodall is an unlikely environmentalist. After all, he makes his living growing trees so he can cut them down.

(link) [CNN]

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