hey, if the tree didn't want to be chopped down it shouldn't have dressed that way

[Guest guest]

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. "