Trump Administration Seeking To Overhaul Forest Management Rules

[riversedge]

Source: npr.org






June 12, 201912:30 PM ET

A logger cuts a large fir tree in the Umpqua National Forest near Oakridge, Ore. Federal land managers are proposing a sweeping rule change that could expand commercial logging on Forest Service land.
Don Ryan/AP



Federal land managers on Wednesday will propose sweeping rule changes to a landmark environmental law that would allow them to fast-track certain forest management projects, including logging and prescribed burning.

The U.S. Forest Service, under Chief Vicki Christiansen, is proposing revisions to the National Environmental Policy Act that could limit environmental review and public input on projects ranging from forest health and wildfire mitigation to infrastructure upgrades to commercial logging on federal land.

"We do more analysis than we need, we take more time than we need and we slow down important work to protect communities," Christiansen told NPR.

The proposed rule changes include an expansion of "categorical exclusions." These are often billed as tools that give land managers the discretion to bypass full-blown environmental studies in places where they can demonstrate there would be no severe impacts or degradation to the land.

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According to the government's own analysis — the last done in 2010 during the Obama administration — fewer than one-fifth of all timber and forest projects are appealed by citizens or environmental groups though. A bigger holdup is budget cuts, particularly in the Forest Service, where money has been diverted away from wildlife, habitat and forestry programs to pay for the skyrocketing costs of wildfire suppression........................................

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2019/06/12/731713229/trump-administration-seeking-to-overhaul-forest-management-rules

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I simply do not trust any changes the Trump Admin. makes.

[keithbvadu2]

1. How much money for rakes?

[pazzyanne]

2. The proof is in the details of any plan,

and we know that the tRump administration is a "little" shy on details in everything they do. Also, where does the money go from these fast track cutting plans? We need to see the plan WRITTEN DOWN IN DETAIL!

[Ford_Prefect]

3. It is part of a scam to open Federal land to mining, oil and gas extraction.

The analysis they want to simplify usually shows environmental and community impacts that would preclude the extraction activities. In Montana, the same interests proposed regulations that would have increased lumbering activities and generated a very short term increase in lumber-related jobs and income by removing protections for research and wildlife study areas. The proposed harvesting activity would lead to the decimation of the outdoor recreation industry in Montana at the cost of 30 times the value of the short term profits from logging.

But the GOP likes a story so they tell one about how the regulations killed the logging and took jobs from all those unemployed loggers. The industry has moved on since the 1980s. There are several hundred times that number of jobs in outdoor Montana now which derive from the presence of the forests and wildlife.

The extraction industries want to mine in areas they've been kept out of. Areas they claim hold mineral wealth beyond counting. They don't want federal rules telling them they must not pollute rivers and streams with chemical waste or runoff or tailings as do the oil and gas industry. They also want to do this on Federal land because the rates paid for the minerals extracted are pennies to the ton.

Removing or simplifying the regulatory review process by bypasses the environmental law intended to protect those lands. Once again the GOP redefines ketchup as a vegetable to get around pesky regulations.

[Bayard]

5. Well said

By all means, let's short-cut all that environmental and public input stuff. I'm sure they'll replant all the trees, right?

[Maxheader]

4. You can bet its about money..not conservation of natural resources...

Betcha..

[Blackjackdavey]

6. Perhaps the biggest reason I am most thankful

for residing in New York State. Our state lands are out of reach and remain just about the only place in the lower 48 where you can still get 360 degree views without clear cuts in sight.