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Kerry offers proposal to boost forest health $100 million a year: Campaign aides note new jobs in part of 3-page plan. Scott Sonner ASSOCIATED PRESS 7/13/2004 11:43 pm
Democrat John Kerry would cut $100 million in annual government subsidies to the timber industry to pay for a new Forest Restoration Corps that would invest in the long-term health of national forests, his campaign said Tuesday.
Shifting spending from commercial logging operations on federal lands would allow for creation of new jobs while restoring forests, streams and rangelands that have been mismanaged or severely damaged by wildfires, campaign aides said.
The new program, reminiscent of the Civilian Conservation Corps President Franklin D. Roosevelt established during the Great Depression, is one of the highlights in a three-page plan, “John Kerry’s Forest Plan: Putting Communities First.”<snip>
Among other things, a Kerry administration would pledge to annually budget to cover all federal firefighting costs, make necessary additions to aerial firefighting fleets and focus reduction of fuels in overstocked forests on those areas posing the most immediate threats to communities.<snip>
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