-----Original Message-----
From: nfpa-news-8o+uV5p9NQCIIaYfpyrIQh2eb7JE58TQ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:nfpa-news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
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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