Despite the recent furor over the environmental damage threatened by the Republican-dominated 104th Congress, the so-called salvage logging bill—a rider on a budget-rescissions bill—so far is one of the few changes to environmental protection programs actually signed into law. One should not assume, however, that the logging rider's ability to survive a presidential veto means that it is an innocuous compromise. To the contrary, if this law (coined the "logging without laws" bill by many environmentalists) is any indication of things to come, it should alarm all but the most hardcore antienvironmental advocates. As National Audubon Society Vice President Brock Evans has put it: "The rule of law is gone in all the Nation's public forests." In addition to the substantial environmental damage being wrought, the law will cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $500 million to 1 billion, including millions for new road construction.

Just a few months old, the new law already has forced the federal government to release salvage timber sales contracts affecting hundreds of acres of public lands nationwide. The bill may seriously undermine implementation of President Clinton's hard-won "Option 9" Pacific Northwest Forest Plan, recently upheld by a federal district court. Moreover, congressional proponents of the logging bill are keeping the pressure on the federal government to continue to release timber sales at a rapid pace. Members of Congress have formed a Congressional Task Force on Salvage Timber and Forest Health that is closely monitoring federal agencies' compliance with Pub. L. No. 104-19. The Task Force already has held one hearing in Washington, D.C., and several field hearings.