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Keep Public Review for Forest Plans
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Progressive Portal
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Mar 07, 2005 16:50 PST
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PROPOSAL WOULD EXCLUDE FOREST SERVICE FROM LAW REQUIRING
AGENCIES TO DISCLOSE ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF THEIR ACTIONS
Official comment period has ended, but there's still time
before the decision is made: contact Congress now
[From SaveOurEnvironment.org <http://www.saveourenvironment.org>]
The National Forest Service wants to exempt its forest management plans
- the blueprints for how our national forests are run - from the
requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a landmark
law that requires federal agencies to study and disclose the
environmental effects of their actions and to include the public in
their decision-making.
The Bush administration has worked to steadily chip away at this
important law over the past four years. This latest attack on NEPA would
greatly reduce information available to the public, scientists, and
other agencies. It would make it much more difficult for the public to
provide comments, concerns, objections, or alternatives to Forest
Service proposals.
Forest-management plans, which are created and periodically revised for
each national forest, establish long-range frameworks intended to shape
decisions on specific operational issues, such as how much and where to
permit construction, logging, off-road vehicle use, and mineral
development, as well as how best to protect wildlife and water quality.
Management plans for more than 100 national forests are due for revision
by the end of this decade.
Excluding forest-plan amendments and revisions from NEPA would mean the
public wouldn't get information about changes in these guidelines until
planning is well under way. It would also reduce the quality of the
information made available. For example, NEPA requires that a range of
alternatives be developed and carefully considered. That rule not only
provides the agency a chance to take a broader, outside-the-box view,
but also helps the public understand the trade-offs that must be faced.
If the planning process is exempted from NEPA, we may never get to see
the forest for the trees.
Write to National Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth and your members of
Congress and urge them to abandon this ill-conceived proposal.
Take Action
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Send a message to the Forest Service at:
http://www.saveourenvironment.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=13074
Contact Congress -- enter your ZIP code under "Write Congress" in the
left column of most ProgressivePortal.org pages or at
<http://congress.org>.
More Information
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http://www.forestsforever.org/timbergift.html
http://www.americanlands.org/issues.php?article=1109176216
http://www.americanlands.org/documents/1105739275_NFMA_FINALREGS.pdf
(95K, Adobe Acrobat Reader required)
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