Mark Rey is one of the central figures in the Ground Shift initiative. His career in the timber industry and in federal policy helps explain why we are deeply skeptical of where this effort is headed.
Rey’s early career ran the gamut of timber industry lobbying groups from 1976 to 1992, including American Paper Institute, National Forest Product Association, American Forest Resource Alliance, and culminating with a stint as executive director of the American Forest and Paper Association. A timber lobbyist through and through, Rey was devoted to the concept of the “working forest” where success was measured in board-feet of lumber, and the welfare of interior forest wildlife or trout and salmon streams could be waved away as an extravagance.
Rey next went on to work for Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) as a staffer on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which gave the timber industry its inside man in writing federal laws that suited their appetites. He played a major role in an amendment to fast-track the industrial destruction of post-fire forests, before they had the chance to recover. It was tacked onto must-pass legislation intended to fund recovery from the Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building.
