Why Logging US National Forestland to Sell Timber to China is a Really Bad Idea

Countries around the world are working harder than ever to save their forests. Brazil’s president recently announced that the country’s 80 percent Amazon deforestation reduction target will be met by 2016 – four years earlier than promised. In 1998, China banned tree cutting to preserve its forests after the loss of trees caused flooding along the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. The ban is now extended to 18 of its 23 provinces, according to CQ Global Researcher. Here in the US, environmentalists backed by the EPA’s Endangered Species Act have reduced national forestland logging by 75 percent from its peak 20 years ago.