SOS Forests

Hundred Thousand Dollar Jobs

The US Forest Service has announced that the first round of Stimulus projects have been selected. The USFS received $1.15 billion from the the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Of that, $98 million (12 percent) is to be spent in this first round.

Region 5 (the Pacific Southwest Region in California) will be spending $7.75 million. They foresee creating 70 jobs with that money, jobs that will last one year. That’s $110,714 per job. The jobs entail maintenance and construction on facilities, roads, and trails.

The USFS Region 5 News Release [here]:

NEWS RELEASE: USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region

Forest Service Contributes To National Economic Recovery

VALLEJO, Calif., Mar. 5, 2009 — U.S. Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell announced today the Agency’s plan to participate in the nation’s economic recovery program. The Forest Service has received $1.15 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The first group of Forest Service projects nationwide created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, totaling $98 million, have been selected. These initial projects will create 1,500 jobs, giving the Agency the early opportunity to put people to work. The remaining projects, totaling $1.052 billion, will be announced shortly and will create an additional 23,500 jobs nationwide.

First round projects on lands managed by the Forest Service in California will include maintenance and construction on facilities, roads and trails totaling 70 jobs and $7.75 million. The jobs are estimated to last from four months up to a year. These projects will benefit 11 counties.

“I am proud that the Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region will be playing an important role in creating private sector jobs for Californians on their national forests,” said Regional Forester Randy Moore. “With the construction industry being one of the hardest hit, these projects will be right on point. In addition we have the opportunity to provide jobs to counties with high unemployment up to as much as a year.”

Under the language of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Forest Service will create as many jobs as possible to support communities and to get money flowing through the economy again. All funds will be spent on specific targeted projects that are, or soon will be, ready to go.

“The Forest Service anticipates playing a key role in our nation’s economic recovery,” said Chief Kimbell. “We are grateful for the confidence Congress has shown us and look forward to demonstrating how the Forest Service can create good jobs during difficult times,” Kimbell added.

Many of the most affected communities of the economic downturn are located near national forests. Rural jobs will be created in areas needing restoration work with shovel ready projects related to fire prevention, roads, bridges, buildings and recreation facilities.

More detailed information about new Forest Service projects and jobs in California will be forthcoming.

Information on the overall U.S. Forest Service role in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act can be found at: http://fs.usda.gov/recovery. Information on the total federal effort can be found at http://www.recovery.gov.

For some contextual numbers, California’s unemployment rate was pegged at 10.1% last month [here].

KGO-TV News, Feb 27, 2009

… With nearly two million Californians out of work, the rising demand for unemployment services has pushed the state into overdrive.

About $40 million dollars a day in benefit checks are being cut and mailed out each day. A record 525,000 initial claims were processed last month and a federal loan is keeping that fund solvent.

And the call center staff at the state unemployment office is stretched thin. In an ironic twist, the state is actually hiring 400 people to help answer questions.

It still takes people, on average, 20 tries before they can talk to a live person…

So let’s do some math. The USFS proposes to create 70 trail maintenance jobs paying $110,714 each. There are 2 million unemployed people in California. That’s one job per 28,570 unemployed persons. The $7.75 million is equal to about 4.65 hours worth of one day’s unemployment benefits. The state unemployment office is hiring 5.7 times as many people just to answer the phones. We don’t know how much they will get paid, but probably less than $110,714.

On average, the first round spending of $98 million is projected to create 1,500 jobs nationwide. That’s $65,333 per job, not figuring in the 70 jobs paying $110,714 each in California.

The remaining $1.052 billion will create an additional 23,500 jobs. That’s an average of $44,766 per job.

It seems it would behoove an unemployed person to get one of the first round jobs, since they pay 2.4 times as much as the later jobs.

Yesterday the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported [here]:

The number of unemployed persons [nationally] increased by 851,000 to 12.5 million in February, and the unemployment rate rose to 8.1 percent.

Of the 12.5 million workers currently unemployed, 23,500 jobs is one per 531 of them. That’s a little better than the first round in California, but the future projected numbers are iffy to say the least.

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of all this is that the USFS defines “restoration work” as “shovel ready projects related to fire prevention, roads, bridges, buildings and recreation facilities.”

That’s not what restoration is. Restoration involves active management of forests to achieve desired stand structures as informed by historical reference conditions.

The USFS definition is something else entirely. And the “road maintenance” part really means road decommissioning. Their intention is to dismantle the infrastructure.

Generations of taxpayers will be paying exorbitant taxes to fund dismantling of the USFS infrastructure today. A handful of participants will benefit, but the vast majority of citizens will suffer, as will our forests.

By the way, fire prevention is already a budget item in the regular budget. The USFS could save hundreds of $millions in suppression outlays by actually preventing and suppressing fires, rather than allowing them to burn all summer long across vast tracts, as has been their fire program for the last 10 years or so. For instance, last year Region 5 spent $400 million deliberately burning 1,000 square miles of public forests in Northern California (on the Klamath, Six Rivers, and Shasta-Trinity NF’s).

The best way to stimulate the economy is for the government to reduce taxes and get out of the way. Real stimulus requires the creation of wealth. Dismantling infrastructure and burning down the nation’s forests destroys wealth, lately to the tune of tens of $billions per year.

As near as I can tell, no other USFS Regions have announced how they will be spending Stimulus funds as yet. They probably will do so next week.

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Note: Region 3 (Southwestern Region) has called for submission of proposals for projects that facilitate landscape-scale restoration forestry [here]. Region 3 is ahead of the curve. Their previously implemented restoration projects [here] have not only created jobs, they created wealth and reduced fire suppression costs and losses. They have done so without Stimulus monies. The other USFS Regions should really follow the lead of the Southwest Region.