[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992-1993, Book II)]
[September 14, 1992]
[Pages 1558-1561]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to Burrill Lumber Employees in Medford, Oregon
September 14, 1992

    The President. Mike, thank you, sir. Thank you very--He's getting 
our props ready for this presentation. [Laughter] Now, thank you so 
much, Mike, for the introduction. Thanks to your wonderful dad and to 
the entire Burrill family and all of you for letting me visit here 
today.
    Last week in Detroit, I released my Agenda for American Renewal. And 
the agenda was based on a fundamental premise: that the challenges that 
America faces, foreign, domestic, economic, and yes, environmental, are 
connected. The solution to one cannot be divorced from the solution to 
the other, and we need an integrated approach.
    We need to bring this integrated approach to the relationship 
between the economy and the environment, too. Environmental protection 
and economic growth must go hand in hand, and they cannot be divorced 
from each other. This morning, I spoke in California, down in San Diego, 
about ways to bring them together. But frankly, I believe that when it 
comes to the Endangered Species Act and its application here in the 
Northwest, the balance has been lost.
    Like many of you, I love to hunt and hike and to fish. Like you, I 
have learned through a lifetime of experience to appreciate and respect 
the great outdoors, the wilderness. I know that you, you particularly 
who have chosen to live in these marvelous parts of the woods, respect 
and revere these forests as others never can. And you resent the 
implication that earning your livelihood here, with sound management of 
the forest, makes you less of a conservationist than the city dweller or 
the suburbanite.
    For the past 4 years, my administration and I have worked hard to 
protect the environment, and we've accomplished a great deal. Four years 
ago, I promised Americans a new Clean Air Act. For over a decade, no one 
could get it done, but we did. Our Clean Air Act reduces smog in our 
cities and gets toxic pollutants out of the air and will cut acid rain 
in half.
    Four years ago, I promised that I would protect the environmentally 
sensitive areas of our coasts from the offshore drilling. And today, 
there is no drilling off the coast of California, off the coasts of 
Washington and Oregon, and off the Florida Keys and off the New England 
coast. We banned that ocean drilling until the year 2000.
    Then, 4 years ago, I promised to be a good steward of our public 
lands. We have added thousands of miles of trails for Americans like you 
who love the outdoors, and we're reopening and upgrading campsites all 
across this great country. We've added a million and a half acres to our 
national parks and wildlife areas and forests and recreation lands.
    But the fact is that every American cares about the environment, and 
most consider themselves environmentalists. That is particularly true 
here in the Pacific Northwest. Yet Americans today realize that we can 
protect our lands while also using them for

[[Page 1559]]

the people's benefit. They understand the need for wilderness and 
recreation areas, as well as the need for paper for our schools and 
offices and timber for new homes.
    Being out here in the great Pacific, the Northwest, I'm reminded of 
Teddy Roosevelt, the very first President who focused the attention of 
the entire Nation on the condition of our natural resources. Teddy 
Roosevelt once said, ``Wise forest protection does not mean the 
withdrawal of forest resources from contributing their full share to the 
welfare of the people.'' What President Roosevelt had in mind, and what 
the American people have always wanted, is balance.
    Not far from here, in the State of Washington, is a timber town 
called Forks. Forks supported a mill, and the mill supported a 
community. And because of the lack of timber, the mill had to close. 
Today unemployment in Forks is at 20 percent. The car dealership is 
closed; clothing store is gone; movie theater, shut down. Domestic 
violence complaints have doubled, just in the past year. Now, Forks is 
in crisis for a simple reason: the balance has been lost. I've come here 
because we must restore the balance.
    Listen to one of the Senators, Senator Mark Hatfield, from here, who 
was a cosponsor of this original Endangered Species Act back in '72. 
This year he wrote, ``There is no question that the act is being applied 
in a manner far beyond what any of us envisioned when we wrote it 20 
years ago.'' The Endangered Species Act was intended as a shield for 
species against the effects of major construction projects like highways 
and dams, not a sword aimed at jobs, families, and communities of entire 
regions like the Northwest.
    But today, when harvesting on Federal timberland is stopped outright 
by 13 different lawsuits, under 7 different statutes, each inconsistent 
with the other, the balance has been lost. And it's time to fight for 
jobs, for families, and for communities. When hundreds of mills have 
been shut down, thousands of timber workers thrown out of work, and 
revenues for schools and other local services have been slashed, the 
balance has been lost. And it's time to fight for jobs, families, and 
communities.
    So the time has come to talk sense about the Endangered Species Act, 
about the spotted owl, and about the management of our forests, because 
it is my firm belief that people and their jobs deserve protection, too.
    Let me be clear. The basic purpose of the Endangered Species Act is 
good and noble: save the rare and threatened species of this country. 
But today, the act and other laws are being used by people with extreme 
views, particularly here in this State, here in Oregon, to achieve in 
the courts what no sane elected official would ever vote for, the 
complete lockup of the most productive forests in the entire United 
States.
    The entire Endangered Species Act, as rigidly interpreted by some 
courts and as driven by the Congress, has forced an extreme approach and 
created an unnecessarily tragic situation here in the Northwest. Massive 
areas of Federal land are being set aside for the owl, virtually 
ignoring the fact that two-thirds of the Northwest's old-growth forests 
are already designated as parks, wilderness, or other classifications 
that prevent harvesting. Each pair of owls gets 3,500 acres to itself. 
Meanwhile, jobs and families and communities are being wiped out in the 
process.
    The other side has been talking about a ``false choice.'' And they 
claim that this timber crisis is just politics. The simple fact is this: 
The false choice is being driven by extremists who are twisting the 
Endangered Species Act and its application to the northern spotted owl.
    Now let's set the record straight. We've always worked within the 
parameters of 
the law to address this problem. But I 
can tell you this: The law is broken, and 
it must be fixed. And we have asked the 
Congress for funds to cut enough timber in this region to keep people 
employed. But these conflicting laws allow challenge after challenge. We 
convened the ``God squad'' to exempt 13 timber sales here in southern 
Oregon from jeopardy opinions from the Fish and Wildlife Service, and 
every one of those sales is now enjoined. So this year we sent Congress 
an alternative plan, a preservation plan, if you will, that would save 
17,000 jobs compared to the recovery plan required by the act. 
And Congress has failed to act on

[[Page 1560]]

my plan.
    My friends, it is time to consider the human factor in the spotted 
owl equation. My opponent talks about putting people first. Well, we can 
start right here in the Pacific Northwest.
    So here is what I propose:
    First, I will not sign an extension of the Endangered Species Act 
unless it gives greater consideration to jobs, to families, and to 
communities. I will not sign it without a specific plan in place to 
harvest enough timber to keep timber families working in 1993 and 
beyond. It is time to make people more important than owls.
    Second, I will fight to end the injunctions that have put an 
economic stranglehold on the Northwest, in order to free up the timber 
that we need today, because the families and the timber communities of 
the Pacific Northwest need relief, and they need it now. I call upon the 
United States Congress to pass my plan to produce 2.6 billion board feet 
of timber from Forest Service lands in the Northwest region next year, 
and at least 500 million board feet on BLM land. And I ask Congress to 
tie that plan to language that prevents lawsuits from stopping 
reasonable harvests with reasonable species protection. It is time to 
put people ahead of process, and the Congress must understand that.
    Third, my administration will speed the harvesting of dead or dying 
timber that has been dangerously building up during a 7-year drought. 
One step is our new rule to allow more timber salvage operations to 
occur without triggering some of the time-consuming requirements that 
are blocking progress. This will reduce the risk of fire, and it will 
provide up to 450 million board feet of timber for the mills in the near 
term. In other words, it's time to protect jobs with timber that's 
available now and put the mills back to work.
    Finally, I call upon the Congress today to pass the spotted owl 
preservation plan. That's the bill sponsored by Senators Packwood and 
Hatfield and Slade Gorton, which they call ``The Northern Spotted Owl 
Preservation and Northwest Economic Stabilization Act of 1992.'' It's a 
long name, but it's a good bill. And it's time to preserve both owls and 
jobs, jobs in the timber industry and in agriculture, transportation, 
and in recreation as well, where they, too, are threatened by this 
Endangered Species Act.
    Now a word about my opponent. My opponent's approach to this 
problem--and I'll try to be fair--no, but his approach to this problem, 
to your jobs, really is--and look at the record--double-speak. When he 
spoke in Pennsylvania, Governor Clinton spoke in Pennsylvania, he said 
what the Sierra Club wanted to hear. They concluded that Governor 
Clinton was, quote, ``promising the protection of old-growth forests in 
the Pacific Northwest.'' And then, when he heard I was coming here, Mr. 
Clinton cynically held out false hope to timber families by promising 
another meeting.
    There have already been more than 40 bipartisan meetings of the 
Northwest congressional delegation on this issue for 3 years. Now, look, 
here are the studies. We've produced a pile of studies and proposals 
this high. And the only good reason for the timber industry--the only 
good news is all the trees it took to print all these darn reports. Look 
at them. And so I say to Governor Clinton: No more studies.
    Help me change the law; that's what needs to happen. The difference 
on this is clear. I will; I will change it. It's as simple as this: My 
opponent will not fight to change the law to restore balance.
    Now I know that Mr. Clinton, and Governor Doublespeak, I call him--
[laughter]--but nevertheless is getting famous for being on both sides 
of these issues. But do you want to know the real views of the other 
ticket? I hate to bring this word up, but Senator Gore----
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. He wrote it in black and white in his book before he 
knew that he'd be out there pandering for votes. And in his book, 
Senator Gore said this, and I quote, ``I helped lead''--I want to get it 
right here--``I helped lead the successful fight to prevent the 
overturning of 
protections for the spotted owl.'' And he wrote, and this is an exact 
quote, ``the jobs will be lost anyway.'' I challenge Governor Clinton: 
Do you agree with your run- 
ning mate? Do you endorse the book 
that you once called ``magnificent''? It is 
time we worried not only about

[[Page 1561]]

endangered species but about endangered jobs.
    I am here to tell you that I'm the one who will respect the 
wildlife, yes. I think we all do. We all agree. But I'm also the one who 
will fight for jobs, for families, and for communities.
    I have come here to tell you that I will not stand for a solution 
that puts at least 32,000 people out of work. It will not stand. I mean 
it.
    I've come here to tell you that we haven't forgotten about the human 
factor. Because in the end, in the final analysis when all the campaigns 
are over and all the charge and countercharge takes place, the human 
factor, that is the most important factor of all.
    I've come here today to tell you that we can restore the balance. We 
must restore the balance. And with your help, we will restore the 
balance.
    May God bless your families, your jobs, your hopes for our great 
country. And may God bless the United States of America. Thank you all 
very, very much. Thank you. Thank you all.

                    Note: The President spoke at 6:30 p.m. at Burrill 
                        Lumber Co. In his remarks, he referred to 
                        company officers Michael Burrill, president and 
                        general manager, and Eugene Burrill, owner. The 
                        President also referred to the Endangered 
                        Species Act Exemption Committee (``God squad'').