This forest health thing is a hoax cooked up by the timber industry lobby, she said.

She said the mandated three billion feet is suspicious because if the intent of the rider is only to remove trees that should be salvaged, there should be no need for a minimum to be in place. Wilder-Thomas also said the bill leaves too much discretion for private logging companies to determine what trees should be salvaged.

They can say let’s call everything salvage,’ she said.

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Lawsuits filed by environmental activists in the past to prevent logging at Shawnee for several years would not apply if the bill passes because what the laws the suits were based on would not be applicable, Wilder-Thomas said.

U.S. Forest Service officials at Shawnee said they were not sure how passage of the bill would effect logging operations in the Shawnee.

An amendment sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) which would define salvage more specifically was defeated in a narrow 48-46 vote earlier this year.

The rescissions act is in limbo right now. Sen. Carol Mosely-Braun (D-Ill.) and a few other senators are negotiating other parts of the bill not related to logging with the Republican leadership, Todd Atkinson, an aide to Mosely-Braun, said.

Kate Konschnick, campaign coordinator for Save America’s Forests, said the bill must be passed before the end of the Senate’s current session in early August or it will be dead. She said she feels confident that it will make it through, but is worried that the fight is not over.

We’re worried about next year, she said, something like this could come up again.

David Carle, a spokesman for Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), said he is not so sure of the bill’s fate.

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It’s still being negotiated, he said.

Joanna Slaney, Mosely-Braun’s press secretary, said although the senator is aware of the timber amendment, she has not taken a position on the issue and is busier with portions of the bill involving cuts in job training and education.

Carle said Simon supports passage of the rescissions act, but added that he supported Murray’s amendment to define salvage in more detail.