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Forest Service would have lost money on Darroch-Eagle sale

By Michael Garrity

I taught natural resource economics at the University of Utah for seven years and was the natural resource aide for Congressman Cook, R-Utah, for two years. The U.S. Forest Service claimed in your paper they would have made a profit of $900,000 from the Darroch-Eagle sale and this profit would be then be used to buy land from the Big Sky Lumber Company. Despite their claims of huge profits, the Forest Service uses misleading accounting techniques and almost never makes any actual profit on timber sales.


 The 10-year, 1992-2001 Gallatin National Forest timber cut is instructive. The Gallatin National Forest sold 63 million board feet of timber for about $5 million. This money was spent to replant trees and clean up after the loggers. Furthermore, during these 10 years, Congress appropriated an additional $11 million to cover the costs of the Gallatin Nation Forest timber program. The total cost, including $5 million in receipts consumed, was $16 million dollars. The financial result was a loss of $11 million for the 10 years, $16 million minus $5 million. This means the Gallatin National Forest, and the American public, lost about $870 for every logging truck of timber cut.

The lawsuit, which stopped this timber sale, was about the Forest Service breaking the law. Even if the judge had allowed this logging to go

forward, it wouldn't change the fact the Forest Service would have lost nearly $400,000 on the Darroch-Eagle timber sale. Losing money doesn't

pay for anything. The General Accounting Office recently reported the Forest Service's financial statements are unreliable and it is easy to understand why.

Michael T. Garrity

P.O. Box 505

Helena

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