Members of the American Loggers Council will meet in Washington, DC this year to help promote President Bush's Healthy Forest Initiative, and lobby on other issues that will help promote the logging industry in the United States, announces ALC Executive Vice President Danny Dructor.

ALC President Bob Luoto has set the spring board of directors meeting for March 28-29, with visits to Capitol hill and administrative agencies on March 31 and April 1.

This is not the first time that ALC loggers have traveled to the national capitol, but it will be the first time the organization has held its board of directors meeting in conjunction with the visit, Dructor said.

Issues of concern to ALC include managing public forest lands, which includes timber harvesting to assure the public of healthy forests, utilizing the Federal Interstate highway system with state legal tolerances to transport loads safely to mills, and helping legislators realize the economic importance of the logging and timber industry not only to rural communities, but to the national economy.

The ALC remains committed to seeing reforms in the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act which would include the use of good science when reviewing a project or an endangered species listing, as well as protecting the private property rights of individuals who grow and harvest timber, and other forestry operations whose abilities may be restricted by abuses of both the CWA and ESA by interest groups filing frivolous lawsuits, the ALC said.

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