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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 13, 1991                   TAG: 9102130089
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. LOSES ON LOGGING IN SOUTH

In its annual financial report on logging activities in national forests, the Forest Service said the losses in the Appalachian forests of Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky were more than offset by profits on timber sales elsewhere in the country.

Nationwide, the Forest Service said it made $302.5 million in fiscal 1990 on sales of 10.5 billion board feet of timber from national forests. In addition, the agency paid $327.3 million in timber revenues to local governments for road and school programs.

The Forest Service said timber revenues exceeded expenses in only 57 of the 122 national forests. And after the legally required payments to local governments were subtracted, only 47 of the forests showed a profit.

The $8.3 million loss in the Southern Appalachians marks the fourth-straight year that government expenses associated with logging there have exceeded revenues by more than $8 million.

Environmentalists for years have fought to eliminate such money-losing timber sales, arguing that they not only contribute to the federal deficit but also leave permanent scars on national forest lands.

President Bush last year proposed a pilot program to eliminate below-cost timber sales in 12 national forests, including three in the Southern Appalachians. But timber-industry supporters in the Senate blocked the proposal.

The Forest Service, however, said the below-cost timber sales in the Southern Appalachian forests also resulted in the creation of an estimated 2,820 jobs and $61.2 million in income during fiscal 1990.

The report said costs and payments to states exceeded timber sales revenues by $573,000 in Georgia, $2.67 million in North Carolina, $1.1 million in Tennessee, $1.39 million in Kentucky and $2.6 million in Virginia.

In fiscal 1989, national forest timber sales lost $628,000 in Georgia, $2.64 million in North Carolina, $989,000 in Tennessee, $1.45 million in Kentucky and $2.36 million in Virginia.

In Southern national forests outside the Appalachian region, the timber-sales program for the most part was a financial success in fiscal 1990. The only non-Appalachian forest with logging losses was the Ouachita in Arkansas, where expenses exceeded revenues by $64,000. Arkansas' other national forests showed a $57,000 profit.

The report said timber sales turned a profit of $249,000 in Alabama, $801,000 in Florida, $4.1 million in Louisiana, $7.6 million in Mississippi, $3 million in South Carolina, and $1.04 million in Texas.

A total of 1.4 billion board feet of timber was harvested from the national forests of the South in fiscal 1990. Just over 17 percent of that total came from the Southern Appalachian forests.