Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.issues,americast.usa-today.issues From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: issues Tue, Sep 15 1992 Date: Tue, 15 Sep 92 04:23:48 EDT Message-ID: 09-15 0000 DECISIONLINE: Issues & Debate USA TODAY Update Sept. 15, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network Here are some of the issues and topics being debated across the nation Tuesday morning in USA TODAY: Forests, Debates. TODAY'S DEBATE - FORESTS: USA TODAY'S OPINION: When it comes to terror, the menacing crows and sea gulls in Hitchcock's "The Birds" have nothing on the Pacific Northwest's spotted owls. In the region's political scripts, the dark-eyed creatures about the size and shape of a football, turn vibrant timber towns into ghosttowns. ... Since the owl was declared endangered in 1990, 8.4 million acres of forest have been closed to logging and thousands of jobs lost. President Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton, both stepped into the script Monday, campaigning in owl country. They called in different ways for balancing people's needs against nature's. Bush promised to ax the Endangered Species Act, now up for renewal in Congress, unless it tips the balance more toward people and the timber industry. Clinton called for a summit on the issue. Neither confronted these truths: The owls are a signal of an era's end, not its cause. Timber jobs are disappearing for the same reason owls are: ancient forests they depend upon are almost gone. The question isn't whether jobs will be lost but when. Projections suggest forest loss, automation and economic factors will wipe out 40,000 jobs by 1995. Too often the politicians can't see the forest for the rhetoric. The forests, growing when Columbus came to the New World, are key to protecting another Northwest industry, salmon fishing. They prevent flooding and erosion. ... Most recently, the region's Pacific Yew trees yielded a drug effective in treating breast cancer. Government should save the forests. And it should help cushion the impact with retraining programs for workers and a plan for diversifying the economy as logging declines. It is time for a new script without villains, in which jobs, owls and trees are all worth saving. OTHER VIEW: RITA KALEY works for a lumber company based in Hood River, Ore., and is vice president:public lands for the Alliance for America: Our forests are dying, mountainside by mountainside. On the surface, the culprits are bugs and disease. In reality, misguided public pressure to preserve - rather than to manage and to nurture - our environment has put 70% of our Pacific Northwest forests in peril. Experts trace the unraveling process to preservation policies that tie the hands of professional land managers, prohibiting them from stopping bugs and disease. ... The very "environmentalists" who champion our forests on the nightly news are, in fact, destroying these precious ecosystems. ... Today's environmental movement is a good idea gone haywire. That's why citizens of every stripe are in Washington this week. We're criss-crossing Capitol Hill, armed with our personal stories about how well-intentioned, yet misinformed, special interest groups are hurting Americans who feed, clothe and shelter this nation. Our goal is to inject common sense into the environmental debate and to help our fellow Americans see we have only their best interests at heart. ... What we don't have is time to lose. This is why our appeal to Congress and all environmentally conscious citizens goes out with such urgency. With their help, we will calm the environmental hysteria. ... We will save this country from the fate of our dying forests. VOICES ACROSS THE NATION ON PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES' DEBATES: CICERO, Ill., Debra Lipinski, 35, p.r. representative: From what I've heard, Bill Clinton is trying to make a fake issue of the debates and the accessibility of President Bush. He's trying to set them up on his terms. Bush has participated honorably in debates before. He's made himself accessible and put himself on the line. ARLINGTON, Va., Rich O'Boyle, 25, reporter-editor: They're important because stuff is filtered through the media. It also puts the candidates in charge, rather than their handlers. There will be more personal attacks, like Bush calling Clinton a liar on his draft record and Clinton calling Bush on his "no new taxes" pledge. OREGONIA, Ohio, Gloria Galloway, 57, teacher: They're necessary, and Bush is procrastinating. It doesn't make much difference how many moderators there are, although I would tend to lean toward one. Too many detracts from the debate itself. They should do it as soon as possible. I've almost made up my mind. WENHAM, Mass., Walt Bowman, 50, athletic director: They're an absolute must, even though they're rhetoric. Really, the only time it doesn't turn into rhetoric is when someone makes a mistake, and then we read about it for the next two weeks. There should be more than one moderator so there's a balance. SUNNYVALE, Calif., Ginger Readus, 28, auditor: They should have the debates but should speak to the issues. They need to stay away from things like family values. I watched the debates between Bush and Dukakis. I pretty much had my mind set before the debate. I've made up my mind already on this election. Issues & Debate Editor: Kate Coughlin. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. 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