Lars Larson: BLM passes on $100M, 800 jobs

By Lars Larson
NW and national radio host,

Four months ago, President Trump ordered more logging on national forests, but the message seems not to have penetrated down to the Bureau of Land Management here in the Northwest.

Last week, I talked to Dennis Teitzel (tie – t – zull), NW Oregon BLM manager for the previous 3 years.

He admits the BLM is authorized to cut up to 350 million board feet of trees, worth more than a hundred million dollars. But the agency is only cutting two-thirds of that number for reasons he couldn’t explain.

I asked how much more could be cut from BLM forests at sustained yield, where you never run out. Teitzel told me he didn’t know, as he is not a forester, but he is the BLM manager.

If you do the math, those 100 million board feet BLM didn’t cut in just NW Oregon will create between 800 and 11 hundred jobs in the small towns of the Northwest.

It also generates a substantial amount of cash for the federal treasury.

And, of course, you can build houses with it.

America currently imports 28 percent of its lumber from other countries.

Which is kind of like Saudi Arabia importing oil.

If you want to know how President Trump could pay America’s bills without higher taxes, take a drive down any highway and look at all the green standing on both sides.