Subject: PANUPS: US Log Import Rule
From: [email-masked] (EcoNet Pesticide Issue Desk)
Date: 30 Jun 1994 01:17:21 -0400
Newsgroups: alt.sustainable.agriculture

From: EcoNet Pesticide Issue Desk <pestdesk>

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  PESTICIDE ACTION NETWORK NORTH AMERICA UPDATES SERVICE
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U.S. Log Import Rule Poses Threats to U.S. and Exporting 
Countries

June 29, 1994

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant 
Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has proposed a rule to 
allow the importation of logs, lumber and other 
unmanufactured wood products from foreign temperate 
forests, an action that leading experts and the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) say could lead to 
the devastation of U.S. Western forests and massive 
pesticide-based insect eradication programs.  

The proposed rule would allow the import of logs, rough-
sawn wood, chips and other raw wood products from 
forests with climates similar to the U.S. (including 
those in Siberia, Chile and New Zealand) while 
attempting to keep damaging pests from entering the 
country with the wood.  The proposed rule requires 
exporting countries to use large quantities of 
pesticides on the wood including dockside fumigation 
with methyl bromide, an ozone depleting chemical that 
will be banned for manufacture and sale in the U.S. in 
2002.  Yet in three pest risk assessments prepared by 
the U.S. Forest Service, leading forest pest experts 
expressed concern that even with the application of 
large amounts of pesticides and kiln heating in 
exporting countries, forests pests would not be 
eradicated from the wood.

In its comments on the proposed rule, EPA expressed 
concern regarding the introduction of serious pests and 
the use of pesticides to control them, "possibly in 
significant amounts."  EPA also stressed that the 
proposal to use methyl bromide as an integral part of 
the pest eradication plan is not consistent with 
proscribed actions under the Montreal Protocol (an 
international treaty which governs substances that 
deplete the ozone layer) and provisions of the U.S. 
Clean Air Act.

In the past, introduction of pests into U.S. forests has 
led to devastating losses of trees in the eastern 
regions of the country where foreign pests have 
seriously damaged over 60% of 165 million acres of 
Northeastern forests.  Throughout the U.S., pest 
eradication projects have repeatedly failed to halt the 
progress of the European gypsy moth and other foreign 
pests.  Experts commenting on the proposed rule have 
stated that western U.S. forests are particularly at 
risk because they are less diverse than those in the 
eastern U.S., and because logged areas have been 
reforested with single tree species, providing an ideal 
environment for the rapid spread of organisms.

In a worst-case scenario of infestation of one species 
of pest from Siberia, APHIS estimates that direct timber 
losses could reach $58 billion.  This figure does not 
include damage to the ozone layer due to methyl bromide 
use, deforestation leading to loss of biodiversity and 
enhanced global warming, damage to human health and the 
environment in both the U.S. and exporting countries 
including damage to watersheds, loss of wildlife and 
fisheries, impacts to tourism, and a myriad of other 
potential costs.  

In the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) 
required under the U.S. National Environmental 
Protection Act, APHIS did not address the significant 
environmental and health hazards of pesticides proposed 
for use in foreign countries in the preshipment 
protocols.  Pesticides listed for use in preshipment 
treatments include:  lindane, pentachlorophenol (both on 
PAN International's list of Dirty Dozen pesticides), 
coal tar, arsenic pentoxide, creosote and other 
chemicals. 

Imported logs and other unmanufactured wood products are 
being promoted by sawmill owners in the Pacific 
Northwest who see imports as a cheap replacement for 
logs no longer available from public lands.  However, 
according to the Forest Service, over two billion board 
feet of logs are exported from the U.S. Northwest 
annually.

APHIS is currently preparing the final EIS under what 
its project leader has described as "the most intense 
Congressional and industry pressure we have ever seen" 
to get the process completed in as short a time frame as 
possible.  At this time, it is not known when APHIS will 
complete this task and when the final ruling will be 
made.  On June 29, 1994, the Subcommittee on Specialty 
Crops and Natural Resources of the U.S. House of 
Representatives Agriculture Committee will hold hearings 
on the proposed rule.  Two top forest pest experts and 
NGO representatives are scheduled to testify.

Sources:  Federal Register, January 20, 1994, December 
10, 1993; USDA, Pest risk assessment of the importation 
of larch from Siberia and the Soviet Far East, 1991; 
U.S. EPA, Comments to proposed rule for the importation 
of logs, etc, April 1994; Natural Resources Defense 
Council, Fading Forests, January 1994; USDA, Northeaster 
Area Forest Health Report; USDA, Importation of Logs, 
etc, Draft EIS, February 1994; The Atlantic Monthly, 
June 1994.

Contact:  Patty Clary, Californians for Alternatives to 
Toxics, 860 1/2 11th Street, Arcata, CA 95521; phone 
(707) 822-8497; fax (707) 822-7136.

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The Pesticide Action Network Updates Service (PANUPS) is a 
pesticide-related news service posted weekly by the 
Pesticide Action Network North America Regional Center 
(PANNA). PANNA is located at 116 New Montgomery Street, 
#810, San Francisco, CA 94105. Tel: (415) 541-9140. Fax: 
(415) 541-9253. To receive a standard information packet 
about the Pesticide Action Network send a short e-mail 
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