FRA FLY-IN PUTS 49 MEMBERS ON CAPITOL HILL

RELEASE: March 23, 2011

CONTACT
Neil Ward (301/838-9385) nward@forestresources.org

Rockville, MD – On March 17, forty-nine senior managers from the Forest Resources Association’s leadership gathered in teams to weigh in with members of Congress about the issues that affect the business of supplying mills with raw material and affect the survival of forest-dependent communities. Altogether, the ten teams visited approximately 60 congressional offices, representing districts and states with strong forestry interests.

“We’ve concluded that we need to take things up at the policy level when technical solutions can’t get us where we need to be,” commented FRA Chairman Dick Carmical, of The Price Companies, who participated on the Fly-In’s Arkansas/Texas team. “We made persuasive, effective contacts and moved some key issues forward.”

FRA’s Fly-In focused on three issues, each calling for congressional action: (1) building support for truck weight reform on the Interstate system by urging passage of the Safe and Efficient Transportation Act of 2011 (now with 21 co-sponsors); (2) urging Congress to pass a legislative “stay” of the recently issued Boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology (“Boiler MACT”) rule, which threatens to burden a clean industry with heavy compliance mandates that bring few public health benefits; and (3) raising awareness of the Administration’s proposals to place new obstructions on the independent contractor relationships that form the basis of U.S. wood supply chain management.

“Our most effective lobbying teams were the ones that drew on all segments of our membership,” commented LP’s David Hudnall, who chairs the FRA Public Affairs Committee and participated on the Michigan/Wisconsin team. “To have a landowner, a logger, and a procurement forester all putting forward a common view and finishing each other’s sentences--that gave special force to our message.”

The Forest Resources Association Inc. is a nonprofit trade association concerned with the safe, efficient, and sustainable harvest of forest products and their transport from woods to mill. FRA represents wood consumers, independent logging contractors, and wood dealers, as well as businesses providing products and services to the forest resource-based industries.