Oberstar Has Long Record of Working with Wood Products Industry by Congressman James L. Oberstar Appearing in Press Release on 2006-10-24. Duluth-Congressman Jim Oberstar says healthy forests are vital to job growth in Northeast Minnesota. Oberstar has worked hard to balance job growth with a clean environment. Often times, Oberstar has worked across the aisle in Congress to push for timber harvesting measures that will benefit Minnesota's 8th District and the rest of the nation. In the last session of Congress, Oberstar co-authored and co-sponsored the Forestry Research and Recovery Act. This bill requires the U.S. Forest Service to begin salvage and clean up operations on public lands over 1,000 acres within a matter of months instead of years. "After the BWCA blow down in 1999, we were able to move quickly on this work, protecting lives and property from wild fire danger," said Oberstar. "That kind of rapid response needs to be written into law." Oberstar and Minnesota's 7th District Congressman, Collin Peterson, broke ranks with most Democrats on the issue to get the bill authored in the fall of 2005; the bill was signed into law last May. "A forest fire will burn down a Republican's house just as fast as a Democrat's house," Oberstar continued. "Partisanship does not belong in this issue." In recent years, Oberstar has also worked with the Bush Administration on the Healthy Forests Initiative. This legislation allowed the Forest Service to thin dead and overgrown areas of forests to reduce the risk of fires that could endanger lives and property. It also removed many obstacles to timber sales that are necessary to create jobs in Northeast Minnesota. Oberstar also has his eye set toward the future. Early in his career, he helped the University of Minnesota start Minnesota's Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI). This program has done significant research and development for Minnesota's forest producst industry. NRRI projects range from developing cellulosic ethanol to fuel cars to pharmaceutical patents from chemical compounds that can be found in Birch bark. At Vermillion Community College in Cook county, Oberstar secured funding to start the Cut-to-Length timber harvesting program. Training loggers to operate new Cut-to-Length harvesters is essential to bring a new, more cost effective and environmentally sensitive type of logging to Minnesota. "We cannot and must not stop looking forward," said Oberstar. "Our best days are still ahead of us. We can have a clean environment and grow thousands of jobs in our timber industry at the same time."

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