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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:
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