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Show A "catch-up" program of access road construction on Federal forest lands should be authorized by Congress. Such roads facilitate forest management and forest fire-fighting, as well as timber harvesting, recreation, and other uses of public lands. ment of Federal timber to the existing sustained yield units under the 1944 Act has limited the flexibility of the Government and of the involved firms and communities to meet changing conditions. We do not believe that a quota system is a necessary tool for Federal policy and, furthermore, we believe that it is inconsistent with our free enterprise system. For the foregoing reasons, we recommend that the 1944 Act be repealed with provisions, of course, for units now in operation to continue until terminated in ordinary course. Timber harvested from public lands should ordinarily be processed by domestic mills, but interstate shipment should not be limited. The export of unprocessed logs from public lands damages those firms and communities dependent on a public land timber supply. Therefore, the ban on exports of public land logs 100 should be continued. Those who export logs from their private lands should be prohibited from evading this policy by purchasing public land timber for their domestic needs. The Commission believes that the United States should assure that small firms and dependent firms be given some opportunity to obtain public land timber. The current definition by the Small Business Administration of small firms as having less than 500 employees sets this limit at an unrealistically high level for the timber industry, where most firms have fewer employees. Accordingly, the size limit for this industry in terms of qualifying for Small Business Administration assistance should be flexible enough to recognize actual conditions and to give real advantages to small firms when conditions warrant. The Commission also believes it desirable to allow |
