Forestry proposal criticized
Copyright 2001 Boston Globe
June 15, 2001
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON - An environmental organization yesterday accused the Bush administration of trying to rewrite the rules that govern national forests in a way that would allow much more logging and much less public input.
But a spokesman for the US Forest Service said that no decision has been made and that the environmental group was looking at one of only six options being studied by the Bush administration.
In a statement yesterday, Jane Danowitz, director of the Heritage Forests Campaign, said the Bush administration proposal ''effectively throws out two decades of environmental protections for America's national forests.''
But the Forest Service spokesman said such criticism is unwarranted because the agency is a long way from deciding its policy. ''By no means are we anywhere near completing this process,'' said Forest Service spokesman Heidi Valetkevitch.
At issue is a policy that sounds arcane, the rules governing the 10-year plan that must be submitted by every national forest, but that ultimately could affect every acre of national forest.
Yesterday, in a first glance at what is likely to be a summerlong process, environmental organizations obtained a draft of the proposed regulations, which included six options.
The environmental groups said the option most likely to be adopted by the Forest Service would eliminate both a requirement for scientific review in the forest planning process and a requirement to prepare environmental impact statements when revising forest plans. The environmental groups also said that the plan would reduce the period of public comment on forest plans from 135 days to 60 days, and would make it too easy for forest supervisors to allow logging in areas where endangered species might live.
Valetkevitch, the Forest Service spokesman, said she was surprised at the criticism because she said the environmental groups were looking at an internal document dated June 11 ''that is already out of date. This changes week by week.'' She said the Forest Service would release a draft of its proposed regulations in August, and that the public would have a chance to comment on them.
This story ran on page A29 of the Boston Globe on 6/15/2001.