Subsidy to help logging areas hurt by species protection expands to areas with little logging

A federal program designed to help rural counties where logging operations were hurt by attempts to protect an endangered bird now benefits counties across the country, many of which have limited or no tie to the logging industry, The Associated Press reports. One Senate supporter says it's simply an example of a program expanding to get the votes it needs to stay alive.

Since Congress passed the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act in 2000, "the program has distributed more than $3 billion to 700 counties in 41 states with national forests and helped fund everything from schools to libraries to jails," AP reports. Originally the program focused on the handful of Western states affected by the 1990s battle to protect the northern spotted owl, AP reports. Oregon alone has received almost $2 billion of the funding, and still gets the most.

However, when Congress renewed the law last year, Western states saw their share of funding drop while at least seven other states received increases of over 100 percent. Among those benefiting the most are Utah (636 percent), Alaska (528%), Kentucky (303%), Tennessee (188%), Colorado (184%), North Carolina (150%) and Virginia (150%). The states that received some of the biggest increases were those whose senators supported the law the most.

"Timber was harvested in some of these states in the 1980s -- the basis for the original spending formula -- but at far lower levels than the Pacific Northwest, where timber was king," AP reports. The new formula takes into account national forest acreage in each state and county and includes an adjustment based on per capita income and other factors. "Frankly, we had to broaden the program in order to get the support to go ahead and do a reauthorization, and that's exactly what we did," New Mexico Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman told AP. (Read more)