Splintercat wrote:-- and especially to export raw logs when they could be milled here. Oregon's rural counties continue to have an extremely high unemployment rate, so the impact of these exports is real, and the rest of us pay for it in terms of human services for economically distraught counties.
Don't forget to add in the cost of these impacts...
Minimal property taxes don't cover the damage done to the public's roadways by the hauling of logs and heavy equipment needed for logging.
These companies pay a pittance for property tax but receive government services including expensive law enforcement resources.
The impacts of extensive clearcutting are borne by the public in the form of diminished water quality and quantity, downstream sedimentation, debris flows (Osso WA. as one tragic example) and on and on.
