Bush Administration Announces New Forest Planning Rules
That Favor Logging, Cut Wildlife Protections,
Threaten Clean Water and Reduce Public Input

For the second year in a row, the Bush Administration has announced a harmful new forest policy on the eve of the Christmas holiday. Last December 23, the administration announced they were opening up pristine parts of the Tongass National Forest to new logging and development. Last month, they released damaging new regulatory changes to the rules that guide sound forest management.

The Bush administration's new rules effectively remove 20 years of National Forest protections. The new Forest Service planning regulations undermine important wildlife, clean water, and other environmental protections. Instead of protecting wild forests limiting damage to wildlife and clean water, these new regulations allow agency discretion to carry out harmful projects and revise management plans at will. Additionally, the new regulations will sharply limit the opportunity for meaningful participation by citizens in local forest planning.

"The new forest rules clearly reflect the Bush administration's belief that logging companies should be the primary beneficiary of our National Forests," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director. "Americans want to protect the places where they hike, hunt and fish, but when the Bush administration rewrote the rules, they wrote the public out of the equation."

America's National Forests deserve better. With these new rules, the administration rejects sound science, ignores the importance of public input, tilts the playing field sharply toward the logging companies by creating a presumption that all national forest lands are open to industrial or timber uses unless explicitly prohibited, and leaves monitoring of logging impacts at the discretion of individual forest supervisors.

The new rules for long-term forest planning will reduce protections for forest wildlife and eliminate requirements that forest plans comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. The regulations also change enforcement of the 1976 National Forest Management Act, and, not surprisingly, conform closely to a timber industry "wish list" presented shortly after the 2001 presidential inauguration.

Taken together with the administration's plan to remove wild forest protection for National Forests, these changes will create serious threats to many of our last-remaining wild roadless areas and old-growth forests. Instead of bowing to timber industry pressures and undermining existing National Forest protections; the Bush administration should work to protect our clean water, restore wildlife habitat, and preserve the wild forest heritage of all Americans.

What You Can Do:

The public now has 60 days to comment on the Bush administration proposal. Written comments may be sent to:

• Forest Service Content Analysis Team
  P.O. Box 22777
  Salt Lake City, Utah 84122

Comments also will be accepted by electronic mail to planningce@fs.fed.us or by facsimile to 801-517-1015.

You can use the following sample letter to help you send in your comments.

Dear Chief Bosworth,

The proposed changes to the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) regulations are a large step backwards in wildlife conservation, environmental protection, and public involvement in the National Forests. The regulations remove key environmental safeguards for National Forests that have been in place for more than 20 years.

The new NFMA regulations remove protections for wildlife, favor logging, and eliminate meaningful public participation in local forest planning. The effect will be to make the National Forests far more vulnerable to environmentally destructive logging and other harmful management activities.

America's National Forests deserve better:

• · The final NFMA regulations must require all forest plans to maintain "viable populations" of native fish and wildlife species.

  · The role of science must be maintained in forest planning.

  · Scientific evidence and recommendations should not be ignored or overridden in the forest planning process.

  · The Forest Service must not be exempt from National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements for forest plan revisions. Environmental

  · Impact Statements (EIS) and public involvement must be required when any forest plan is revised or amended.