FW: [NFPA] Forest Service Drops to Another New Low

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of christina wulf
Sent: March 20, 2004 2:29 PM
To: VAFW List Serve; WildVA; No Cut News
Subject: [NFPA] Forest Service Drops to Another New Low


Forest Service Drops Outside Environmental Reviews

WASHINGTON, DC, March 19, 2004, (ENS) - The Bush administration has 
advised the U.S. Forest Service to eliminate reviews of its actions by 
other federal agencies for compliance with endangered species, clean 
water, and historical preservation laws.

The agency plans to remove any consultation or other "process" it deems 
unrelated to "the Four Threats" - fire risk, invasive species, unmanaged

recreation and loss of open land - according to a memo detailing 
instructions given in January by Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth.

The memo calls for the elimination of endangered species consultation on

"inland aquatic species with both ... Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA

Fisheries."

In addition, building on a recently finalized rule waiving Endangered 
Species Act consultations on fire-related activities, the Forest Service

would expand this no consultation stance "to all land management 
activities."

The policy removes the obligation for outside environmental analyses of 
any herbicide applications done in the name of controlling invasive 
plants and eliminates compliance with Historic Preservation Act rules 
requiring review by state agencies of protection of historical and 
cultural artifacts.

The memo was not made public by the Forest Service but was released 
Thursday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a 
national alliance of local state and federal resource professionals.

The Bush administration has defended the new Forest Service policy as a 
commonsense approach to environmental reviews and insisted natural 
resources, public health and wildlife will be protected.

But PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch says officials fail to grasp the 
difference between "streamlining and steamrolling."

"The Forest Service's track record makes a powerful case for more 
outside review not less," Ruch said.

The move to end interagency consultation eliminates checks on Forest 
Service abuses and will lead to more litigation, Ruch explained, because

lawsuits would become the only avenue for securing agency compliance 
with resource protection laws.







*
-- 

Christina Wulf
Virginia Forest Watch
Charlottesville, VA
434-971-7678

PROTECT VIRGINIA'S FORESTS
http://www.VirginiaForestWatch.org
MAKE A SECURE ON-LINE CONTRIBUTION TODAY!


"The free animal has its decline in back of it, forever,
and God in front, and when it moves, it moves already in eternity, like
a fountain."  - Rainer Maria Rilke




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