US Pushes Ahead With Clinton Forest Plan; Critics Call it
`Ridiculous'
12/23/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: US pushes ahead on forest plan; Critics say Clinton order
'ridiculous'
Source: The Boston Globe
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 23, 1999
Byline: Robert Braile
New Hampshire logger calls it ''totally ridiculous'' and a Republican
presidential candidate calls it ''the epitome of federal arrogance,''
but the US Forest Service is rebuffing intense pressure to back down
from President Clinton's directive to protect 40 million acres of
land in the national forests.
After receiving more than one million letters, postcards, and other
responses since October, the service will end its public comment
period today on the directive.
''We're not going to buckle,'' said Agriculture Department
Undersecretary Jim Lyons, in an interview yesterday. ''We're
determined to complete this initiative as directed by the
president.'' In his view, he said, some of the criticism from Capitol
Hill has been ''disingenuous'' and intended ''to create delay.'' He
said the department rejected requests by critics to extend the
comment period by three months.
To Rick Lessard, the owner of North Country Lumber in Freedom, N.H.
and a veteran logger in the White Mountain National Forest, that
means moving ahead with an initiative that ''is totally ridiculous,''
he said. ''I agree that there are some areas that should not be
logged. But there are many that can and should be logged.''
S ince Clinton unveiled his initiative to ban new roads for logging
and other uses on the 40 million acres, the agency that must devise
regulations in the coming year to carry it out - the Forest Service -
has been bombarded with criticism.
In House and Senate hearings last month, Agriculture Secretary Dan
Glickman, Forest Service Chieff Mike Dombeck, and Lyons wer lambasted
by congressmen and senators who claimed the directive circumvented
Congress's role in managing the 192 million-acre national forest
system. The critics said the initiative would in effect designate new
wilderness areas in the forests, which by law only Congress can do.
Many congressmen and senators requested in letters that the comment
period be extended by three months. One letter from US Sen. Judd
Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, was signed by 32 other senators.
New Hampshire Republicans Charles Bass and John E. Sununu joined 46
other representatives in signing a second letter.
In a letter from Republican senators Bob Smith of New Hampshire and
Frank Murkowski of Arkansas, the two chairmen of committees dealing
with natural resources suggested that the Forest Service has violated
a major federal environmental law in failing to provide the public
with enough information and opportunity to comment.
This week, a presidential candidate chimed in. Arizona Senator John
McCain, a Republican, pledged while stumping in New Hampshire to
repeal the directive if elected. ''The idea that Washington knows
best and that local residents cannot be trusted to do what's right in
their own backyard is the epitome of federal arrogance,'' McCain
said.
But the Forest Service says it has provided groups on all sides of
the initiative with ample information on it and time to comment,
including a three-day extension until today and more than 200
meetings around the country. It adds that it is only starting work on
the regulations, trying to determine key issues, and there will be
more opportunities down the line for people of all persuasions to
have their say. ''We think we've already gone the extra mile,'' Lyons
said.
The initiative has been praised by environmental groups and panned by
industry groups because it would prevent roads from being built on
lands for logging and other activities.
In some cases, as on 43,000 acres in the White Mountains in New
Hampshire and Maine, they may be logged. As many as 150,000 acres in
total of the 774,000-acre forest could be protected by the
initiative. Vermont's 375,000-acre Green Mountain National Forest
would receive no immediate protection under the initiative, but could
if the current definition of a roadless area changes in the
regulations.
To Lessard, who has logged in the White Mountains for 16 years, the
initiative ''is getting us away from a multiuse forest. When the
Forest Service took over that land, it was in deep trouble,'' he
said, referring to reckless logging at the turn of the century.
''They've done a great job bringing it back, but as a multiuse
forest,'' he said. If responsible logging is limited any more than it
is now, ''I'm afraid the forest will revert to what it was.''