James Peterson (Director of Evergreen Foundation)

James Peterson (Jim Peterson) is the Executive Director of the U.S.-based Evergreen Foundation which publishes the pro-logging Evergreen Magazine.

According to the foundation's 2003 annual return to the Internal Revenue Service, Peterson was paid $166,000 for "office management, website work, writing and research". (Pdf)

Profiles
According to a biographical profile, Peterson's "background is in journalism and public relations. He grew up in Kellogg, Idaho, [with] his family roots in logging, ranching, farming and mining. He is a member of the Society of American Foresters and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Pacific Logging Congress." 

The profile states that he has been awarded "Best Forestry Public Relations Program in the Nation, American Forest & Paper Association, 1991; Whistle Punk of the Year, Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association, 1994; National Public Service Award, Association of Consulting Foresters, 1996; Outstanding Contributions to Forest Industry Education, Northeastern Loggers Association, 1999; Outstanding Forestry Activist, Forest Resources Association Western Division, 2000; and Hoo-Hoo International's Woodpecker of the Year Award for 2002." 

Owls Learning to Love Logging
Peterson argued in a Wall Street Journal opinion article that the decline of the spotted owl in the U.S. Pacific Northwest is not due to logging in old-growth forests. Peterson, who has been given a string of awards by various logging industry groups, referred to an unspecified "privately funded" study which "infers an inverse relationship between harvesting and owls." This, he argues, justifies "a long-term thinning program," an oblique reference to the Bush administration's Orwellian-sounding Healthy Forests Initiative, a program to log national forests. The Evergreen Foundation says it works to "restore public confidence in forestry."

The foundation's website states that funders include logging and logging equipment companies, including Boise Cascade Corporation, Potlatch Corporation, Westvaco, Mead, Caterpillar and Timberjack. The foundation's logging industry funding, however, wasn't mentioned in Peterson's Wall Street Journal article.