Thursday, September 15, 2005

Bush Administration Record on America’s National Forests

Bush Administration Record on America’s National
Forests. The Bush Administration is rewriting the laws and regulations that protect our National Forests. This chronology follows the Bush Administration’s actions on forest issues and details the actual impact of each proposal.>> More

Elected Officials Speak Out

U.S. Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis (CA-32)

"In another swipe at public health and our environment, the Bush Administration today gave away America's most prized possessions - our undeveloped, roadless, national forests - to the mining, logging, and road building industries. In California, that means that more than four million acres could now be open for development. In the San Gabriel Valley, 150,000 acres could be open to mining, drilling and road building in the Angeles National Forest.

U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)

"The Bush Administration's decision to gut the roadless rule is a gift to special interests and a blow to the environment. The revised rule immediately eliminates protection for 34 million acres of the most pristine areas in our National Forests, and opens the door for development of the remaining roadless areas in the coming years," Senator Clinton said. "This decision flies in the face of overwhelming public support for protection of roadless areas. Since 2001, over 4 million comments have been submitted--including more than 100,000 from New York--and 97% of those comments opposed weakening protections for roadless areas."

U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.)

"Despite its 2001 promise to 'uphold' the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, today the Bush administration has finally replaced it with their own version. Instead of having a uniform national standard for our forests, the administration has taken another step towards ceding responsibility for a national treasure to states. This is what we have come to expect from an administration that places former timber industry lobbyists in charge of overseeing federal forest policy.

U.S. Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY)

With so much sprawl and development throughout our country, it's imperative that we save the precious remaining acres of roadless national forest and spare them from development of any kind," Hinchey said. "This new rule that the Bush Administration has instituted today should motivate all Americans to fight back and demand that new federal protections are instituted immediately to safeguard our national forests. I will continue to work relentlessly in the House to fight this and other attempts to destroy the environment."

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, CA

"California's forests are one of our state's most treasured and valued resources. I am committed to protecting the vibrant health and sustainable future of our forests," said Gov. Schwarzenegger. "In keeping with that commitment and the assurances we have from the U.S. Forest Service, roadless areas in California will remain roadless."

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Newspapers Speak Out

The following quotes are excerpts articles and editorials appearing in newspapers across the country. We have provided links to online versions where possible. Not all links will be publicly accessible for unregistered users.

The Denver Post by Steve Lipsher

"In one of its most sweeping environmental decisions to date, the Bush administration on Thursday rolled back protections for huge swaths of roadless areas in national forests, potentially opening them for logging, gas exploration and mining."

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Bush lifts ban on forest
roads. The last 58.5 million acres of untouched national forests, which President Clinton had set aside for protection, were opened to possible logging, mining and other commercial uses by the Bush administration on Thursday. Some 69,000 acres lie in the 1.5 million-acre Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, which runs across parts of 11 northern Wisconsin counties. Only two other states east of the Mississippi River - Tennessee and West Virginia - have more acreage at stake.

Atlanta Journal Constitution by Charles Seabrook Bush

OK's Opening Forests. The Bush administration, in one of its most controversial environmental decisions, on Thursday put in place a new rule that will allow the building of roads in many of the most remote, pristine areas of the country's national forests - and open them to logging and mining. In Georgia, the rule will affect 63,000 acres of the 750,000-acre Chattahoochee National Forest in the northern part of the state. One such tract is the 8,350-acre Kelly Ridge road less area straddling the Appalachian Trail near the mountain town of Helen, about 120 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta. A high, wild and rugged area, it is adjacent to the 9,700-acre Tray Mountain Wilderness Area and harbors one of Georgia's largest old-growth forests.

New York Times

Bush Administration Rolls Back Rule on Building Forest Roads by Felicity Barringer Jim Angell, a lawyer for the environmental law group Earthjustice … [said] his group would soon challenge the new rule in the federal courts. For leading environmental groups like the Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club and Trout Unlimited, the new rule - which they variously characterized as emasculated, Kafkaesque and a sham - is an unwelcome turning point in a decades-old battle over areas of the national forests where industry has, for the most part, not yet left a footprint.

Los Angeles Times

Bush Ends Ban on Roads in National Forests CA Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement that he wanted the state's 4.4 million acres of roadless forest to remain protected and that he had the Forest Service's assurance of that. Helena Independent Record Bush rescinds roadless rule by Eve Byron, IR Staff Writer, and John Heilprin, Associated Press Writer Environmental groups from throughout Montana blasted the Bush Administration's move on Thursday that could open up nearly one-third of all remote national forest lands to road building, logging and other ventures, while the decision was praised by local timber industry and multiple-use representatives.
The 58.5 million acres involved, mainly in Alaska and in Western states, had been put off limits to development by former President Clinton, eight days before he left office in January 2001. Clinton's "Roadless Rule" covered 6.4 million acres across Montana.

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Citizens Speak Out

Read what citizens across America are saying in response to the Bush Administration's repeal of Roadless Protection.

I find it unconscionable that this administration would overturn a decision that was so carefully made after months of hearings involving the input of millions of Americans. If the present administration can be so concerned over the Social Security of our future generations, why then can't it be just as concerned over the WILD PLACES they should also inherit?

Sonora, California

Being Christian means taking care of God's world, not destroying it.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The national forests belong to the people of the UNITED STATES, not to the people of the state where they are located. Giving the Governor of the state the sole voice in defending the forests is a betrayal of the American people.

Manhattan, Kansas

As a person of faith, I find [the] lack of stewardship of our country's (and in deed, our planet's) natural resources and wild places deeply disturbing and short-sighted.

San Leandro, California

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