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Old 28-11-2002, 11:25 PM
Daniel B. Wheeler
 
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Default Bush plan eases forest rules

From The Oregonian, Nov. 27, 2002

Bush plan eases forest rules
Managers would get more leeway in approving logging and commercial
activities

By JOHN HEILPRIN, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is proposing to give managers of
the nation's 155 national forests greater leeway to approve logging
and commercial activities with less examination of potential
environmental damage.
The administration said today its intent was to improve the forest
management regulations issued by the Clinton administration two months
before President Bush took office.
The new land-management rules would affect about 190 million acres of
forests and grasslands overseen by the U.S. Forest Service.
The changes are "designed to...better harmonize the environmental,
social and economic benefits of America's greatest natural resource -
our forests and grasslands," said Sally Collins, the Forest Service's
associate chief.
Asked whether the changes will result in more logging, Collins said,
"We can't say it's going up or down or sideways or the same."
The administration in its proposal said the Clinton rules were too
complicated and "neither straightforward nor easy to implement."
Both the 2000 rules and the proposed revision provide for multiple
uses of federal forestland, but the new proposal would turn more of
the decision-making over to regional foresters. Environmentalists have
complained that regional foresters often develop close ties with local
timber interests.
The Bush administration proposal also would eliminate specific
standards and procedures for maintaining and monitoring wildlife
populations that foresters had to comply with, substituting broad
goals in their place.
Complying with the Clinton rule's requirements for ecological
sustainability and reliance on consistent scientific data "would be
difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish," the Bush administration
said.
It complained that the old regulation for implementing the 1976
National Forest Management Act also required "a level of involvement
by scientists that may or may not be needed."
Environmental groups complained that the proposal not only eliminates
scientific oversight but also increases agency discretion so as to
reduce public involvement to the benefit of the timber industry.
"It's a blatant effort by the Bush administration to boost logging
and help the timber industry, which had a clear hand on the pen of
these regulations," said Robert Dewey, vice president of Defenders of
Wildlife, an environmental advocacy group.
The new proposal would allow local federal forestry officials to
develop management plans for the land they supervise without having to
first conduct an in-depth environmental-impact study.
The administration argues that such plans essentially are a zoning
document and that it would be better to do environmental studies on a
case-by-basis is when possible environmental concerns are anticipated.
A regional forester, however, still could decide that a management
plan itself has significant environmental impacts, triggering the need
for a study. But the official no longer would have to formally assess
the environmental impact every time the management plan is revised.
Democrats accused the administration of attempting to "undo most of
the environmental safeguards that protect our nation's forests."
"We are at a loss to understand why...(the draft rule) goes so far as
to eliminate any assurance of protection for fish and wildlife and
their habitat," said Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.
He said the plan provides no minimum standard for protecting
endangered or threatened species and "no solid protections whatsoever
for wildlife and environmental sustainability."

Posted as a courtesy by
Daniel B. Wheeler
www.oregonwhitetruffles.com
 
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