JeepinIan
04-24-2001, 08:49 AM
Win Some, Lose Some in Quest for Forest Protections
- By Cat Lazaroff
BOISE, Idaho, April 6, 2001 (ENS) - A federal judge in Idaho ruled Thursday that the Clinton administration violated certain environmental and disclosure rules in crafting the Roadless Protection Initiative, opening the door for the Bush administration to overturn the regulation. The judge's decision caps a rollercoaster week of forest protection actions, ranging from legislation to lawsuits.
U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge issued an order Thursday in a case challenging the Clinton administration's roadless rule, which would protect 58.5 million acres of national forest lands from roadbuilding, logging and mining. Lodge refused to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the rule, as requested by the state of Idaho.
However, Lodge also determined that the U.S. Forest Service under President Bill Clinton failed to analyze all the possible negative effects of the roadless rule, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In particular, the judge said the Forest Service did not analyze cumulative impacts that barring roadbuilding could have on the environment and the economy.
"While the Court acknowledges the common sense principle that NEPA does not require an [Environmental Impact Statement] every time the Government decides not to do something," wrote Lodge in his 21 page decision, "an action that serves to 'leave nature along' by preventing the enactment of land management plans that provide for road construction, reconstruction or timber harvesting, despite recommendations by local officials, will certainly have a demonstrable impact on the physical environment - the world around us, so to speak - and is the very action upon which Congress intended NEPA to apply."
The ruling leaves the fate of the roadless rule largely in the hands of the Bush administration, which has said repeatedly that it does not favor closing off public lands to development.
Lodge will make a final ruling as to whether to halt the implementation of the roadless initiative in May, after the Bush administration presents its own arguments on the merits of the rule.
"Judge Lodge's ruling affirms what Idaho has contended all along - that the Clinton Administration's efforts to rush their roadless initiative onto the books have been a seriously and fundamentally flawed process from the very beginning," said Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne in a statement following the ruling. "I know firsthand that President Bush and his administration are committed to making a genuine effort to deal with this issue, and do it in a way that takes into account the concerns of states that could be affected."
Environmental groups such as the Heritage Forests Campaign said Judge Lodge's ruling was not surprising, as Lodge has issued similar decisions regarding other environmental rules in the past. The ruling leaves the future of the roadless initiative where it has been from the outset, the group said - in the hands of George W. Bush.
"All eyes are now on the Bush Administration to implement this balanced and widely popular conservation policy, which protects the last 30 percent of America's unspoiled national forests," said Jane Danowitz, director of Heritage Forests Campaign. "Will President Bush respect the wishes of the overwhelming majority of Americans who support this conservation policy, or will he continue to bow to the wishes of the logging, mining, and oil and gas interests that supported his campaign?"
BIPARTISAN BILL WOULD END LOGGING SUBSIDIES
Some lawmakers are not willing to wait and see what the Bush administration decides. On Wednesday, 74 members of Congress reintroduced the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act (NFPRA), a bill to phase out commercial logging in all national forests and wildlife refuges, and on lands managed by the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management - virtually all federal lands.
The bill would redirect funds now spent to subsidize logging on federal lands towards worker retraining, non-wood fiber research, forest restoration and taxpayer relief. In 1999, the same bill had 48 cosponsors when it was introduced, and it finished the 106th Congress with 99 cosponsors.
"Our national forests provide the American public with clean drinking water for our communities, outstanding recreation for families, and unexcelled wildlife and fish habitat," said Representatives Cynthia McKinney, a Georgia Democrat. "Clearly we need to protect these important resources while also putting people to work restoring the damage caused by a century of logging and associated roadbuilding in our national forests. The National Forest Protection and Restoration Act will accomplish this."
McKinney said last summer's devastating wildfires highlighted the need for extensive restoration in national forests - not for more logging.
"Sadly, some of my colleagues are using last summer's wildfires as an excuse to increase the Forest Service's logging program across the country. However, science shows that logging is the problem, not the solution," McKinney argued. "Fire risk reduction and restoration projects would be better accomplished by direct funding under NFPRA rather than continuing the federal logging program."
The National Forest Protection Alliance, a grassroots coalition representing 300 environmental groups, businesses and religious organizations, echoed McKinney's sentiments.
"This bill is about as mainstream as it gets. It not only protects our national forests, it saves taxpayers $300 million annually," said Tom Weis, executive director of the National Forest Protection Alliance. "It's time to get the federal government out of the logging business and into the business of protecting and restoring the public's national forests."
The federal logging program, while supplying less than four percent of the nation's timber, costs American taxpayers more than $1 billion a year, according to economic figures verified by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. Taxpayers pay for all expenses associated with the federal logging program including road building, timber sale planning and reforestation.
"As taxpayers, we're paying logging companies to clearcut our public lands, and in return we get landslides, floods and polluted streams. That's no bargain in my book," said Bernard Zaleha, chair of the Sierra Club's committee to end commercial logging in national forests. "By ending commercial logging in our national forests, we will save money and protect our drinking water from pollution."
LOGGING SUSPENDED IN TONGASS NATIONAL FOREST
Already, lawsuits are forcing a halt to logging in some roadless areas of national forests. Last week, a federal judge ordered the Forest Service to consider whether more wilderness areas should be designated in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.
Judge James Singleton, Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska ruled that the Forest Service violated two federal laws when the agency refused to consider any new wilderness areas in the 1997 Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Tongass Land Management Plan Revision.
"The Forest Service acted unreasonably, arbitrarily, capriciously and not in accordance with the law," Singleton wrote.
The order prevents the Forest Service from permitting any new roads or timber sales in roadless areas of the Tongass until the agency prepares an EIS considering new wilderness areas.
"In Alaska and in the rest of the country, the public strongly supports protection of the remaining roadless areas of the Tongass," said Tom Waldo, an Earthjustice attorney representing the four conservation groups that initiated the lawsuit. "In the recent public process for the Forest Service roadless area protection rule, over a million people spoke out in favor of protecting these places from roads and clearcuts."
Under federal law, only Congress can designate new wilderness areas, but the Forest Service is required to make recommendations on new wilderness proposals when preparing a land management plan.
"Finally, we will have a public forum to address whether some of the incredible remaining roadless areas of the Tongass should be designated as wilderness," said Allen Smith of The Wilderness Society.
The order does not affect timber sales in the areas of the Tongass already on the road system. But timber industry representatives said the judge's decision could bar logging on at least 400,000 acres of the 17 million acre Tongass.
The order rejected nearly every challenge raised by the Alaska Forest Association, a timber industry lobby group.
"This ruling reaffirms our position from day one, the Forest Service should concentrate on sales of timber in roaded areas and leave pristine roadless areas alone. There are 4,650 miles of existing roads and over 10 billion board feet of timber readily available," said Pat Veesart of the Sitka Conservation Society. "This order spares some of most prized roadless areas in the Tongass from the ax."
The ruling halts logging on the Kuakan, King George and Upper Carroll timber sales, and a road building project on the South Arm sale.
"We have directed loggers working under contract to suspend cutting trees and building roads where operations are currently underway," said Tongass Forest supervisor Tom Puchlerz in a statement issued on Wednesday.
"What a relief," said Veesart.
Source: Environment News Service
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Ian, all the way from sunny South Florida where women are in bikinis all year long!
- By Cat Lazaroff
BOISE, Idaho, April 6, 2001 (ENS) - A federal judge in Idaho ruled Thursday that the Clinton administration violated certain environmental and disclosure rules in crafting the Roadless Protection Initiative, opening the door for the Bush administration to overturn the regulation. The judge's decision caps a rollercoaster week of forest protection actions, ranging from legislation to lawsuits.
U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge issued an order Thursday in a case challenging the Clinton administration's roadless rule, which would protect 58.5 million acres of national forest lands from roadbuilding, logging and mining. Lodge refused to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the rule, as requested by the state of Idaho.
However, Lodge also determined that the U.S. Forest Service under President Bill Clinton failed to analyze all the possible negative effects of the roadless rule, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In particular, the judge said the Forest Service did not analyze cumulative impacts that barring roadbuilding could have on the environment and the economy.
"While the Court acknowledges the common sense principle that NEPA does not require an [Environmental Impact Statement] every time the Government decides not to do something," wrote Lodge in his 21 page decision, "an action that serves to 'leave nature along' by preventing the enactment of land management plans that provide for road construction, reconstruction or timber harvesting, despite recommendations by local officials, will certainly have a demonstrable impact on the physical environment - the world around us, so to speak - and is the very action upon which Congress intended NEPA to apply."
The ruling leaves the fate of the roadless rule largely in the hands of the Bush administration, which has said repeatedly that it does not favor closing off public lands to development.
Lodge will make a final ruling as to whether to halt the implementation of the roadless initiative in May, after the Bush administration presents its own arguments on the merits of the rule.
"Judge Lodge's ruling affirms what Idaho has contended all along - that the Clinton Administration's efforts to rush their roadless initiative onto the books have been a seriously and fundamentally flawed process from the very beginning," said Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne in a statement following the ruling. "I know firsthand that President Bush and his administration are committed to making a genuine effort to deal with this issue, and do it in a way that takes into account the concerns of states that could be affected."
Environmental groups such as the Heritage Forests Campaign said Judge Lodge's ruling was not surprising, as Lodge has issued similar decisions regarding other environmental rules in the past. The ruling leaves the future of the roadless initiative where it has been from the outset, the group said - in the hands of George W. Bush.
"All eyes are now on the Bush Administration to implement this balanced and widely popular conservation policy, which protects the last 30 percent of America's unspoiled national forests," said Jane Danowitz, director of Heritage Forests Campaign. "Will President Bush respect the wishes of the overwhelming majority of Americans who support this conservation policy, or will he continue to bow to the wishes of the logging, mining, and oil and gas interests that supported his campaign?"
BIPARTISAN BILL WOULD END LOGGING SUBSIDIES
Some lawmakers are not willing to wait and see what the Bush administration decides. On Wednesday, 74 members of Congress reintroduced the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act (NFPRA), a bill to phase out commercial logging in all national forests and wildlife refuges, and on lands managed by the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management - virtually all federal lands.
The bill would redirect funds now spent to subsidize logging on federal lands towards worker retraining, non-wood fiber research, forest restoration and taxpayer relief. In 1999, the same bill had 48 cosponsors when it was introduced, and it finished the 106th Congress with 99 cosponsors.
"Our national forests provide the American public with clean drinking water for our communities, outstanding recreation for families, and unexcelled wildlife and fish habitat," said Representatives Cynthia McKinney, a Georgia Democrat. "Clearly we need to protect these important resources while also putting people to work restoring the damage caused by a century of logging and associated roadbuilding in our national forests. The National Forest Protection and Restoration Act will accomplish this."
McKinney said last summer's devastating wildfires highlighted the need for extensive restoration in national forests - not for more logging.
"Sadly, some of my colleagues are using last summer's wildfires as an excuse to increase the Forest Service's logging program across the country. However, science shows that logging is the problem, not the solution," McKinney argued. "Fire risk reduction and restoration projects would be better accomplished by direct funding under NFPRA rather than continuing the federal logging program."
The National Forest Protection Alliance, a grassroots coalition representing 300 environmental groups, businesses and religious organizations, echoed McKinney's sentiments.
"This bill is about as mainstream as it gets. It not only protects our national forests, it saves taxpayers $300 million annually," said Tom Weis, executive director of the National Forest Protection Alliance. "It's time to get the federal government out of the logging business and into the business of protecting and restoring the public's national forests."
The federal logging program, while supplying less than four percent of the nation's timber, costs American taxpayers more than $1 billion a year, according to economic figures verified by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. Taxpayers pay for all expenses associated with the federal logging program including road building, timber sale planning and reforestation.
"As taxpayers, we're paying logging companies to clearcut our public lands, and in return we get landslides, floods and polluted streams. That's no bargain in my book," said Bernard Zaleha, chair of the Sierra Club's committee to end commercial logging in national forests. "By ending commercial logging in our national forests, we will save money and protect our drinking water from pollution."
LOGGING SUSPENDED IN TONGASS NATIONAL FOREST
Already, lawsuits are forcing a halt to logging in some roadless areas of national forests. Last week, a federal judge ordered the Forest Service to consider whether more wilderness areas should be designated in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.
Judge James Singleton, Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska ruled that the Forest Service violated two federal laws when the agency refused to consider any new wilderness areas in the 1997 Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Tongass Land Management Plan Revision.
"The Forest Service acted unreasonably, arbitrarily, capriciously and not in accordance with the law," Singleton wrote.
The order prevents the Forest Service from permitting any new roads or timber sales in roadless areas of the Tongass until the agency prepares an EIS considering new wilderness areas.
"In Alaska and in the rest of the country, the public strongly supports protection of the remaining roadless areas of the Tongass," said Tom Waldo, an Earthjustice attorney representing the four conservation groups that initiated the lawsuit. "In the recent public process for the Forest Service roadless area protection rule, over a million people spoke out in favor of protecting these places from roads and clearcuts."
Under federal law, only Congress can designate new wilderness areas, but the Forest Service is required to make recommendations on new wilderness proposals when preparing a land management plan.
"Finally, we will have a public forum to address whether some of the incredible remaining roadless areas of the Tongass should be designated as wilderness," said Allen Smith of The Wilderness Society.
The order does not affect timber sales in the areas of the Tongass already on the road system. But timber industry representatives said the judge's decision could bar logging on at least 400,000 acres of the 17 million acre Tongass.
The order rejected nearly every challenge raised by the Alaska Forest Association, a timber industry lobby group.
"This ruling reaffirms our position from day one, the Forest Service should concentrate on sales of timber in roaded areas and leave pristine roadless areas alone. There are 4,650 miles of existing roads and over 10 billion board feet of timber readily available," said Pat Veesart of the Sitka Conservation Society. "This order spares some of most prized roadless areas in the Tongass from the ax."
The ruling halts logging on the Kuakan, King George and Upper Carroll timber sales, and a road building project on the South Arm sale.
"We have directed loggers working under contract to suspend cutting trees and building roads where operations are currently underway," said Tongass Forest supervisor Tom Puchlerz in a statement issued on Wednesday.
"What a relief," said Veesart.
Source: Environment News Service
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Ian, all the way from sunny South Florida where women are in bikinis all year long!