These uses contribute 31.4 times more value to the economy and generate 38.1 times more jobs than the timber sale program, the report says. Logging increases the wildfire risk, many ecologists believe. These roads are used to fight fires and help scientists control disease and insect infestations. They are also used by everyday Americans who want to enjoy themselves in the forest. The agricultural industry benefits from the tens of thousands of wild pollinators such as bees and birds that use the national forests for habitat.
Forests help relieve global warming as well.
America s national forests absorb more than 53 million metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year, reducing the amount of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, in the air. The economic report lends ammunition to efforts in Congress to end the federal timber sale subsidy program, says Representative Cynthia McKinney, a Georgia Democrat. When this harm is added to the amount of money lost on the program each year, it becomes perfectly clear that the federal logging program is economically indefensible. McKinney is the sponsor of the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act, a bill before Congress that would end the federal timber sale program while putting people to work restoring the damage caused by 100 years of national forest logging. The bill now has 76 cosponsers.