Bush's forest plan signals return to 'logging without laws'

By Matthew Koehler

Just like its energy plan, the Bush administration's forest plan - dubbed the "Healthy Forests Initiative" - was written to benefit its friends in the resource extractive industries. In fact, the Bush administration and some in Congress are cynically using the threat of wildfires in their never-ending quest to cut more trees in America's national forests.

We've all heard the standard line from the pro-logging camp. They blame the fires on environmentalists and America's pesky environmental laws which, they claim, have gotten in the way of "responsible" forest management on national forests. Problem is, the facts don't back up their conclusion.

For starters, during the past decade only 19 percent of the acreage burned by wildfires have even been on national forest lands. Most of the fires have burned on private, state and tribal land. And science has been telling us for years that a century of commercial logging has increased - not decreased - fire risk and severity.

Consider a 1996 report to Congress that found, "Timber harvest, through its effects on forest structure, local microclimate, and fuels accumulation, has increased fire severity more than any other recent human activity."

Or the Department of Agriculture report following the 2000 wildfires which stated, "The removal of large, merchantable trees from forests does not reduce fire risk and may, in fact, increase such risk." The reported warned that the Forest Service's fire policy "should not rely on commercial logging or new road building to reduce fire risks."

What about the often repeated claim that fuel-reduction projects are being stalled by appeals and lawsuits? The General Accounting Office (GAO) recently investigated all Forest Service fuel-reduction projects for fiscal year 2001 and found that of the 1,671 projects, zero had been litigated and only 1 percent of the projects had been appealed."

Given the facts, proposals to suspend America's environmental laws and eliminate the public's right to appeal Forest Service logging projects should be viewed as nothing less than a transparent attempt to increase commercial logging in our national forests - which has been the Bush administration's stated goal since day one.

Even Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg has jumped on the "logging without laws" bandwagon by introducing legislation that would permanently suspend America's environmental laws, and ban public appeals and judicial review of logging projects on national forests.

Rehberg's bill - called the National Forest Fire Prevention Act - is even broader than the infamous 1995 Salvage Rider, which the Washington Post called "arguably the worst piece of public lands legislation ever."

Under the Salvage Rider - with environmental laws suspended and meaningful pubic participation banned - enough trees were cut from our national forests to fill log trucks lined up for more than 6,800 miles.

Under the guise of improving "forest health," ancient old-growth forests and roadless areas fell to the chainsaw. Unfortunately, if Rehberg and the Bush administration get their way, our public forests will suffer the same consequences, only this time under the guise of "fuel-reduction."

While the environmental community is rightfully opposed to the "logging without laws" approach favored by the Bush administration and their friends in the logging industry, we continue to support a common sense, scientifically based approach to protect homes from fire and restore the ecological integrity of America's national forests.

The Forest Service's own experts have found that a home's ability to survive a fire depends almost entirely on its location, its condition and its surroundings within 200 feet. In short, experts tell us that wildfire protection begins at home, not with more logging on our national forests.

When it comes to restoring our national forests, we support putting local people to work undoing the damage caused by a century of logging, roadbuilding, grazing, fire suppression, and more recently, ATV use. For example, the same bulldozer operator who helped build more than 400,000 miles of roads on our national forests, can be put to work removing roads that create ecological problems or a safety hazard.

In fact, the environmental community has worked together with forest practitioners and community forestry groups to draft a set of Restoration Principles to promote ecological forest restoration and guide the implementation of sound restoration policies and projects on national forests.

Ultimately, the management of America's national forests is up to us -- the American people. Ask yourself, should we listen to those who are proposing to suspend our environmental laws and limit public participation? Or should we move forward with a common sense, scientifically based approach that will protect communities from fire and put local people to work restoring our national forests? The choice is ours.

Matthew Koehler is with the Native Forest Network based in Missoula, Mont. You may learn more about these issues by visiting the Native Forest Network's website at www.nativeforest.org.