forests are just logs awaiting processing

The Forest Service has reduced by 90% their assessment of how much recreation in our national forests contributes to the national economy, from a Clinton Adminstration estimate of $111 billion in 2000 to $11 billion in 2002. A Forest Service flack assured us that this doesn't mean they value the forests any less, it's just "a better way of calculating" the economic benefits of these activities.

Allow me to make a prediction about the 3-step process we can expect to see from the de facto Bush Administration:

Step 1: Slash the economic value of recreation in the national forests while claiming this is merely a bookkeeping exercise.

Step 2: Use this new lower economic value to justify increasingly mining and logging the shit out of the forests.

Step 3: Laugh all the way to the bank and leave the damage to some Democratic administration down the road to clean up.