Bush to Propose Easing
Logging Rule
Wed Aug 21, 5:44 PM ET
By
MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press
Writer
White
House - AP
WASHINGTON (AP) - Responding
to the rash of devastating
wildfires that have swept the
West this summer, President Bush
( news
- web
sites) is planning to ease
restrictions on logging in
national forests.
Bush, who plans to visit a
fire site Thursday in Oregon, is
expected to propose changes to
environmental laws to make it
easier for timber companies to
get approval to thin out federal
forests and remove fire-prone
dead trees and undergrowth.
But environmentalists said
the administration was gutting
safeguards that have protected
the national forests for
decades. "Our fear is that
this is a backdoor way to open
more land to commercial
logging," said Allen
Mattison, a spokesman for the
Sierra Club ( news
- web
sites).
Under Bush's plan, timber
companies not only could thin
forests of brush, but cut trees
— including some more than a
century old — that are now
protected, Mattison said.
Administration officials said
forest management changes are
needed to reduce the fire risks.
This summer, wildfires have
burned more than 6 million acres
from Alaska to New Mexico, or
twice as much timber as in an
average summer, said the U.S.
Forest Service. Federal spending
to combat wildfires could reach
$1.5 billion this year.
Interior Secretary Gale
Norton, characterizing Western
forests as "a tinder box
waiting for a spark," said
much of the blame can be traced
to "nearly a century of
well-intentioned but misguided
management" of federal
forests including the policies
of putting out fires as soon as
they start and restricting
removal of underbrush, fallen
logs and dead timbers.
This has left forests
"crowded ... with thick
undergrowth (that) makes forests
susceptible to disease, drought
and severe wildfires," she
wrote in an op-ed article
published Wednesday in USA
Today.
Environmentalists
acknowledged that decades of
quickly extinguishing fires
contributed to the fire problem.
But they insisted that actions
by environmentalists to protect
forests played no part in the
fire hazard.
They cited a recent report by
the General Accounting Office ( news
- web
sites), the investigative
agency of Congress, that said
that less than 1 percent of the
government's attempts to thin
forests were challenged by
outside groups including
environmentalists.
The environmentalists accused
the administration of using this
summer's fires to help the
timber industry, which
contributed heavily to Bush's
2000 presidential campaign, gain
greater access to federal
forests.
A key part of Bush's plan
would make it harder for
environmental groups and others
to challenge government logging
plans.
"We're very concerned
they will use the fires to
further an agenda they've had
for a long time — and that is
to change key environmental
laws" that serve to protect
the forests from logging, said
Linda Lance, a Wilderness
Society vice president.
"We're all stuck on
fires right now, but the Bush
administration is talking about
changes in environmental law on
the books for 30 years,"
said Susan Ash, a forest
ecologist with the Oregon
Natural Resources Council, an
environmental group.
Chris West, a vice president
of the American Forest Resource
Council, a timber industry
group, said in light of this
summer's fires the government
has no choice but to act.
"We've burned up half a
million acres of Oregon's
forests. It's high time the
federal government began to
seriously address concerns about
the health of Western
forests," he said.
But environmentalists said
any action should be directed at
protecting communities from
wildfires. They called for
creation of "community
protection zones" that
would allow thinning in areas
near homes and other property,
but would leave more remote
areas of the forests alone.
A number of environmental
groups, including the Sierra
Club and Wilderness Society,
proposed a five-year, $10
billion plan that would make
money available for fireproofing
homes in forest areas and focus
programs for thinning forests
and removing brush to lands
closest to homes.
___
On the Net:
National Interagency Fire
Center: http://www.nifc.gov
U.S. Forest Service: http://www.fs.fed.us/
Sierra Club: http://www.sierraclub.org
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