California United Methodists
Call for End of Commercial Logging
on National Forests
and in Old Growth Forests
WHEREAS, Psalm 24:1 proclaimed “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and all that dwell in it...”
WHEREAS, in Genesis 1:12 God proclaimed the goodness of trees and other plant life,....
WHEREAS, we don’t need to log national forests for our timber supply, given... timber from national forests... comprises only 3.9% of this nation’s total annual wood consumption....
WHEREAS, the national forest timber sales operated at a net loss to taxpayers of at least in $1.2 billion in fiscal 1997....
WHEREAS, if we ended the timber sales program on national forests and redirected the logging subsidy, we could provide over $25,000 for each public timber worker for retraining... and... have over $200 million left over to reduce the federal deficit....
WHEREAS, our commitment... to protect... ancient forests on public and private land is [an] ...important symbol for us to make so that other nations might be more willing to follow suit,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that we call for the immediate cessation of commercial logging on all public lands including our National Forests;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call for the redirection of all timber industry taxpayer subsidies into worker retraining in forest restoration jobs that lead to healthy rural... communities;
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that local congregations, the California Pacific Annual Conference, and the General Conference of the United Methodist Church urge our lawmakers to enact legislation to end commercial logging in our National Forests, on public lands, and in ancient and old growth forests.
