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For Immediate Release
White House Wildfire Proposal Called "Classic Bait-and-Switch"
WASHINGTON –"Healthy Forests Initiative" measures announced by the White House today use the threat of wildfire to exclude the public from forest decisions, while opening national forests even wider to the timber industry, according to Defenders of Wildlife President Rodger Schlickeisen. The Administration's proposals include dramatically expanded exclusions for forest projects under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), as well as new curbs on the public appeals process for logging projects ostensibly linked to fire reduction.
"It's become apparent that they just can't help themselves – at every opportunity, this White House will work overtime to cut the public out and invite the logging companies in to our national forests," Schlickeisen said.
Last August, the White House announced a series of legislative proposals to deal with forest fire dangers, which were widely criticized as focusing too heavily on commercial logging in the backcountry, and not enough on forest fuels reduction near communities. Congress did not enact the President's initiative.
Today's announcement outlines administrative steps the White House intends to take in conjunction with, and in some cases instead of, those legislative measures.
The first proposal categorically excludes projects of any scale in the Healthy Forests Initiative from environmental analysis under NEPA, using a loophole originally intended only for small scale work with minimal environmental impact. This announcement comes on top of a proposal two weeks ago that the broad, 15-year forest plans also be excluded from NEPA scrutiny as well. "It's a classic bait-and-switch – first they say not to worry about the lack of environmental review on the big-picture forest plans, because individual projects would get that scrutiny. Well, now we find out that they intend to exempt the projects as well," said Schlickeisen. "They don't like environmental protection or public scrutiny, pure and simple, and will stop at nothing to sweep them out of the way of boosting logging in our national forests."
Defenders of Wildlife and other environmental organizations have urged the president and congress to focus limited resources on thinning brush and other unnatural fuel loads near homes and communities, rather than using the specter of wildfire to push for more commercial logging in areas far away from human habitation and for sharp restrictions on citizen's right to challenge decisions by the Forest Service bureaucracy.
This fire proposal comes on the heels of a November 27 Forest Service announcement of sweeping changes to the forest planning process under the National Forest Management Act. Those proposed changes closely mirrored the timber industry's agenda as stated in testimony and comments by the American Forest and Paper Association. In particular, the draft regulations: eliminate ecological sustainability as the priority of the Forest Service; eliminate protections for wildlife, eliminate scientific oversight of agency actions; and eliminate most mandatory standards for forest management.
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Defenders of Wildlife is one of the nation’s most progressive advocates for wildlife and habitat, and was named as one of America’s Top 100 Charities by Worth magazine. With more than 430,000 members and supporters, including nearly 100,000 in California, Defenders is an effective voice for the environment. To learn more about Defenders of Wildlife, please visit www.defenders.org.
