FEDERATION OF WESTERN OUTDOOR CLUBS

---

OPPOSE WEAKENING OF RULES TO PROTECT NORTHWEST FORESTS

As an outgrowth of the Northwest Forest Plan, developed under the Clinton Administration, the Forest Service has been obliged to "survey and manage" all of the species on the lands which they administer. They had to inventory all of the species that inhabited tracts of land on which they planned activities. Then they had to show how they would perpetuate those species in light of what they planned to do. Timber sales had to await such inventories and planning. Many more biologists were hired to prepare these inventories. The BLM in the northwest was also subject to this requirement.

Now the Bush Administration plans to drop this "survey and manage" guideline. While they promise that other authorities will be used to protect species, agencies would proceed in the absence of information about which species would be impacted by their actions (except on tracts where species are already known to exist.) This decision arises out of the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the timber industry. Some 24 million acres of federal land and over 300 species are affected. This decision may permit a sixty percent increase in logging.

In a parallel move, the Bush Administration also plans to eliminate a rule which was designed to protect salmon habitat. Under this rule designed to protect aquatic ecosystems, Forest Service officials had to demonstrate that their projects would not harm fish. Each project had to make such a showing. Now fish habitat will only be protected in a general way. The requirement that fish habitat not be harmed will only be applied over the long run and to large watersheds. This requirement will no longer be applied to each project. This change in the rules also arises out of a settlement of a lawsuit brought by the timber industry.

These two major steps toward making northwest forest policy more friendly toward the timber industry are regarded as steps toward weakening the Northwest Forest Plan itself.

The Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs objects to these proposed changes to the Northwest Forest Plan and calls for retention of the "survey and manage" requirement and the policy which applied the requirement that aquatic systems be protected in every project (i.e., the Aquatic Conservation Strategy). It deplores efforts to weaken the Northwest Forest Plan. It encourages efforts to challenge these moves in court. It calls for an end to the practice under which the government agrees to make major changes in public policy in behind-the-scenes agreements with the timber industry to settle lawsuits which they pursue.


next >>