" Smurfit says, the decision is "market-related," meaning that demand has dropped significantly for their linerboard.

Given that America is in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, one would assume that this crisis has reduced demand in the US and internationally for Smurfit's products.

However, then the local union president says the main reason Smurfit is hurting is a lack of logging on national forest and state lands in Montana.

Why does the Missoulian continue to allow the timber industry to blame all their problems on a lack of logging on public lands, without offering any context that's based on the serious economic realities related to the worst crisis since the Great Depression?

If Smurfit has to shut down an entire machine that produces linerboard because demand for linerboard has plummeted, how exactly will more logging on public lands solve that problem? Will more logging from public lands increase demand for linerboard? No. Let's say we give Smurfit more logs from public lands. Will they re-start that machine to produce linerboard that nobody wants?

Much of our economic crisis is related to over-consumption, unsustainable development and cheap lines of credit (which have dried up). The "solution" to this crisis is not to do more of the same.

Rather, the "solution" to the economic crisis is to work together to develop a new economic model based on the principles of sustainability and local and regional self-sufficiency. "

" Houseman said there are many reasons why the company is hurting, but the main issue is the lack of access to timber in Montana.

“Seventy percent of timberland in Montana is federally owned, and yet only 15 percent of those timberlands is utilized,” Houseman said. “The very infrastructure of the wood products industry is collapsing and if our elected representatives don't do something, we are going to have a systemic problem that will increase exponentially.”

Harvesting timber is a healthy way to protect forests, Houseman asserted.

“Just look at the bug kill increases alone,” he said. “We now have 35,000 acres of bug-killed trees a year and no one is managing the problem. Today, I find out that 50-some people are now losing their job in the wood products industry, and the U.S. Forest Service and the state are not doing its job to help out this viable and useful industry.

“There needs be some sort of change.”

Yes, there does!!!! "

" Don't forget to give credit to the zealous enviremental nuts who file multiple lawsuits on every timber sale offered by the Forest Service. You can recognize them by the Volvo they are driving with the Obama bumper sticker and California plates.
Go ask the Forest Service to show you the timber sales offered and the lawsuit and challenges filed against them and how long they have been held up. You want to do something with your spare time, organize a protest in front of the homes of the morons listed in these suits so all thier neighbors know who they are. "

" I empathize with the plight of the workers that Mr. Houseman "represents"; however, he needs to look inside his own organization before placing blame. While his union supposedly represents the workers, this same union nearly always supports liberal politicians whose policies he claims are the root of the problem. What good are his sincere efforts to support his co-workers at Smurfitt when the political arm of his organization supports politicians (spelled "Judge Malloy etal") who are so environmentally biased and so oppositional to the wood products industry. His political comrades have effectively cut off the arm that feeds him (and his co-workers). "

" I found it interesting that while the union rep says in this article that the main reason Smurfit is hurting is not enough logging on National Forests in Montana, while in a more recent New West article the same union rep states, "“The company is making a concerted effort to keep paper off the market to keep prices up." (see: http://www.newwest.net/city/article/rumors_swirl_around_frenchtown_mill/C8/L8/)

So, if the company is shutting down one of their machines so that less paper products makes it to the market (hopefully to increase prices) just how does more logging of National Forests fit into this equation?

I just find it amazing that these companies refuse to see the economic crisis for what it truly is: A perfect storm of over-consumption and unsustainable development fueled by cheap or free credit, all of which has come to a crashing halt

The future needs to be clean, green and sustainable...more of the same is not an option. The sooner everyone realizes this and starts working on solutions that bring about this future the better off we all will be. "