Bush Administration Takes Agressive Forest Thinning Measures

WASHINGTON, DC, January 19, 2004 (ENS) - Calling it the "new environmentalism," the U.S. Interior Department Thursday issued guidelines for stewardship contracts that allow private companies and communities to keep forest and rangeland products in exchange for services such as thinning trees and brush and removing wood.

The program is part of President George W. Bush's "Healthy Forests Initiative," signed into law in December 2003 over the protests of environmental organizations.

Under the stewardship contracting program, a company that thins a forest to reduce the amount of fuel that could be burned in a fire is permitted to retain the logged timber in exchange for doing the work. Energy products, such as ethanol and methanol, produced from processing thinned wood will be retained by the company to help pay for the forest thinning.

Mark Rey, U.S. Department of Agriculture under secretary for natural resources and environment, said, "Stewardship contracting allows federal land managers to achieve land management goals, including fuels reduction activities, for public lands at high risk to catastrophic wildfire while meeting local and rural community needs."

The Hot Creek Fire scorched Idaho's Boise National Forest in August 2003. (Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service)

Although the stewardship contract guidelines have not yet been published in the Federal Register, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has already has awarded two contracts. Both were awarded to local contractors in Oregon and focus on logging to reduce wildfire fuel.

Two projects - one in Elk City, Idaho and one in Vernal, Utah - are in the contract development stages. Two additional project proposals have been approved, one each in California and Oregon. The BLM says its goal for 2004 is approximately three dozen stewardship projects.

In another way, the Bush administration last week moved to streamline the logging of national forests for fuel reduction. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman issued an interim final rule for a special administrative review process for hazardous fuel reduction projects in national forests.

The interim final rule is effective immediately, before the U.S. Forest Service has heard public comments, but the Service says it will accept comments from the public on the rule for 90 days.

Implementing the rule before the public has commented does not bother Secretary Veneman. "I am very proud of this quick response to implement the Healthy Forests legislation," she said. "A pre-decisional administrative review process will assist federal land managers in reducing hazardous fuels in high priority areas. We are implementing this legislation aggressively to lessen the impacts of wildland fires on communities and our natural resources."

Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said, "The interim final rule will facilitate collaborative planning efforts with early and meaningful public participation during the project planning phase for hazardous fuel reduction projects."

"In addition, it will provide the opportunity for timely resolution of outstanding issues during the analysis phase and prior to a decision," Bosworth said.

But some conservation organizations and locally elected officials object to the new way of doing business authorized by the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003. Calling the title and language of the bill "double-speak rhetoric," environmental leaders say the program will allow logging in old-growth forests, and undercuts forest protection.

Under Secretary of Agriculture Mark Rey (Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service)

Interior Department Assistant Secretary Rebecca Watson, said Thursday, "Stewardship contracting will demonstrate a 'new environmentalism' - land stewardship based on partnerships and common ground rather than litigation and confrontation. It is part of a new culture of communication, cooperation, and consultation, in the service of conservation - a culture that Secretary Norton calls the 'Four C's.'"

In its Fact Sheet about stewardship contracting, the BLM says the program "exemplifies the new environmentalism of partnerships and common ground envisioned by Interior Secretary Gale Norton in her 4 Cs: Communication, Cooperation and Consultation all in the service of Conservation."

"It seeks to add value to incidental material gathered as a part of forest or rangeland ecological restoration to help pay for the services and to engage local communities in projects that will benefit the public lands, while helping to provide sustainable economic development," the BLM says.

But some local elected officials do not support the Bush administration's approach to forest management. "This initiative is not going to put the resources where the greatest need is," said Blaine County, Idaho Commissioner Sarah Michael. "That will not protect property, residences and lives."

The stewardship contracts can be awarded for periods of time from five to 10 years. The Interior Department explains in its guidelines, "Long-term contracts foster a public/private partnership to restore forest and rangeland health by giving those who undertake the contract the ability to invest in equipment and infrastructure. This equipment and infrastructure are needed to productively use material generated from forest thinning, such as brush and other woody biomass, to make wood products or to produce biomass energy, all at a savings to taxpayers."

Matthew Koehler with the Native Forest Network in Missoula, Montana sees the issue differently. "President Bush has ignored common sense home protection measures and limited citizen participation in order to increase commercial logging on 20 million acres of our national forests, a stated goal of his administration since day one. You can rest assured that we will do everything in our power to stop projects that don't protect communities or restore our public forests," he pledged.

Crew thin the forest near the Rodeo-Chediski Fire in Arizona. The June 2002 fire consumed some 170,000 acres on the Apache-Sitgreaves and Tonto National Forests. (Photo courtesy Curt Drinkwine)

Agriculture Undersecretary Rey said, "Our hope is the advances in research into the utilization of small diameter and other woody biomass combined with the stability provided by longer term contracts will allow a blossoming of new infrastructure, creation of new facilities, new economic opportunities and new jobs as we restore healthy forests."

The BLM says the stewardship contracting projects will conform with BLM’s land use plans and management policies relating to existing special designations such as wilderness. They will comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and all environmental laws such as the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act.

This assurance does not satisfy Andrew George, spokesman for the National Forest Protection Alliance. "The Bush administration's reckless plan will not stop wildfires or insect outbreaks in our national forests, and logging big trees and building roads will only make things worse," he said. "Commercial logging in national forests is the problem, not the solution."

A stewardship contracting notice will be published in the Federal Register later this month. The final guidelines are posted on agency websites at: http://www.blm.gov and http://www.fs.fed.us.

The interim final rule for the special administrative review process appeared in the January 9, 2004 Federal Register.