Bush Unveils New Pro-Logging National Forest Policy

Bush Unveils New Pro-Logging National Forest Policy

On Thursday, the Bush administration announced a new set of rules to
govern the management of the country's 192 million acres of forest that
will open up the public forests to more logging as well as gas and oil
development. The new rules give economic activity equal priority with
preserving the ecological health of the forests in making management
decisions. The plan was quickly attacked by environmentalists and former
public officials including Jim Lyons, who oversaw the Forest Service as
Agriculture undersecretary during the Clinton administration. Lyons said,
"This is the most dramatic change in national forest management policy
since passage of the [1976] National Forest Management Act. It is really a
clandestine effort in my mind to subvert much of what the national forests
stand for." According to the Los Angeles Times, the new plan contains two
major revisions to forest planning regulations. The first drops the
25-year-old requirement that managers prepare environmental impact
statements when they develop or revise management plans for individual
national forests. The second change drops what is widely considered to be
the Forest Services' most important wildlife protection - it is a mandate
to preserve the natural fish and wildlife habitat in national forests.
Mike Anderson of the Wilderness Society said, "I'm very fearful that we've
just lost the foundation for the protection of old-growth forests and
wildlife that has protected the national forests for the last 20 years."