Word: timber
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...true in much of the Pacific Northwest, almost every storefront in Forks displays a sign that reads "We Support the Timber Industry." But another sign tells a bit more about the tie that binds together this community of 3000. "Tie a Yellow Ribbon for the Working Man," the placard reads. And sure enough, the small spruce trees that line the road into town are laced with hundreds of yellow ribbons...
...Forks is not the only logging town where yellow ribbons and timber go hand in hand. All over the Northwest there have been Yellow Ribbon rallies, where, Tisdale reports, "300, 600, sometimes 1200 log trucks in a line rumble through small towns and along the main thoroughfares of cities for an afternoon...
Arguing with nature's foes isn't that easy. Timber industry executives are no dummies. They try to outsmart their opponents by claiming they're better for the environment than the environmentalists. Tisdale quotes a pamphlet issued by the Caterpillar company--manufacturer of bulldozers and cranes needed to remove the Northwest's oldest trees--as an example of this absurd attempt to fool those opposed to the clearcutting: "The Facts Say: Forests do not necessarily improve with age. Decaying stands lack the food resources animals require. Density of old stands blocks sunlight, discouraging new growth...
...timber industry will go to incredible lengths to mask their true destructive intentions. For the strip of Highway 101 that runs through Forks, the Society of American Foresters actually publishes a brochure to guide you through a "motor tour" of the cut-down forests you pass along...
...whole issue comes down to politics and economics. In a quest to woo voters from the rural Northwest, conservative politicians portray the issue as jobs versus the environment, security versus the owl. The move is on to water down the Endangered Species Act in order to allow the timber industry to retain current employment levels and log the spotted owl into extinction...