Which Way, L.A.?

Environmental Laws Too Costly for Timber Industry?

Lumber mills and wood processing plants in California employ 110,000 people, about 4% of the state-s manufacturing jobs. Yet, in the last 14 years, some 20,000 jobs have been lost. The industry says that-s primarily due to California-s unusually stringent environmental regulations. Mills move out of state or shut down, even as the appetite for lumber here grows. As a result, some 80% of the state-s need for forest products is satisfied by trees harvested outside of California. Why do so many lumber companies say they can-t make it here? Managing Editor Kyle McKinnon speaks with David Bischel of the California Forestry Association and Paul Mason of the California-s Sierra Club. Making News: New Study Says Commercial Fleets Depleting Big Fish The fishing fleets that help put swordfish on your plate have effectively wiped out 90% of the population-s big fish from the world-s oceans, according to a study published today in Nature. The study says that at current fishing levels, fish populations will become too small to sustain themselves and the impact could be enormous. Scripps oceanographer Paul Dayton has more on the depletion data and sequential over-fishing. Reporter-s Notebook: Korenstein Vies for Northeast Valley City Council Seat On Tuesday, Los Angeles voters will go to the polls for several important run-off elections. One is for the northwest Valley's 12th District City Council seat. Republican Greig Smith has been Hal Bernson-s chief-of-staff for 23 years. Though Smith declined to speak with us, before he left for vacation, Warren Olney spoke with Smith's Democratic opponent, Julie Korenstein, who has been an elected LA School Board member for 16 years.