Kerry Proposes $100M for New Forest Corps

[GreenPartyVoter]

VERDI, Nev. (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry proposes cutting $100 million in annual government subsidies to the timber industry to pay for a new Forest Restoration Corps that would invest in the long-term health of national forests, his campaign said Tuesday.

Shifting spending from commercial logging operations on federal lands would create jobs while restoring forests, streams and rangelands that have been mismanaged or severely damaged by wildfires, campaign aides said.

The program - reminiscent of the Civilian Conservation Corps that President Franklin D. Roosevelt established during the Great Depression - is one of the highlights in a three-page plan unveiled Tuesday near the site of a wildfire that burned 1,200 acres on the western edge of Reno two weeks ago.

A Kerry administration would pledge to budget annually to cover all federal firefighting costs, make necessary additions to aerial firefighting fleets, and focus reduction of fuels in overstocked forests on those areas posing the most immediate threats to communities, according to the plan.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040714/D83QHG080.html