Barker: Bill Meadows Would Lock in Status Quo for Timber Industry

Wilderness Society President Bill Meadows' proposal for National Climate Trusts likely won't end up locking away millions of new acres from the timber industry.

The reality nationwide is that the United States gets only 2 percent of its fiber from public lands. The rest comes from private forests that are managed for fiber and timber production.

Just like President Bill Clinton's 2001 roadless rule, Meadows' idea for a series of forest reserves to preserve the oldest trees now storing carbon locks in the status quo. It is viewed as a challenge in Western states - where the timber industry still depends on public lands. But when the details are worked out, I suspect the debates will come down to a few hundred thousand acres, except in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.

There, congressional delegations and local industry leaders still hope to get their hands on old growth forests that have been written off to preservation in most of the lower 48 states.

Meadows called on Obama to set up a National Climate Trust, a series of federal reserves chosen on the basis of their carbon density, to store the substance that contributes to global warming when released. Among the forests that could be protected are the 9 million acres of old growth in Oregon, Washington and California already protected under Clinton's Northwest Forest Plan.