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Bank Of America Investment The Bush administration announced Monday that it plans to allow logging of old-growth trees in roadless areas of Alaska's Tongass National Forest and to consider governors' requests to open up other parts of America's wild national forests.

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, who runs the Forest Service, pledged soon after assuming office to uphold "roadless values, " while announcing plans to alter aspects of the Clinton regulations. But the administration has been quietly moving away from that by forging ahead with timber sales in roadless areas, including 33 in the Tongass. A federal judge blocked implementation of that plan in May 2001, saying that the Clinton administration had violated the National Environmental Policy Act in enacting the rule. An appeal is pending.

Investment Opportunity Governors could request that roads be built in wild national forestlands to protect human health and safety, provide access to private property, reduce fire risk or improve habitat.

A federal appeals court in Washington put President Bush on notice last week by temporarily blocking an administration rule that sought to bypass Congress and relax regulations on aging power plants, refineries and other industries. The burden's now on the administration to show that its radical policy change can be done without congressional approval. Bush's rule change, which would have taken effect Dec. 26, allowed old plants to upgrade equipment without having to install pollution controls.

Banc Of America Investment Administration officials described these proposals as limited revisions to the so-called roadless rule, a Clinton administration policy that banned road building and most logging in 58.5 million acres of backwoods national forestlands.

The Bush administration has agreed to revise environmental rules restricting some logging of federal lands, as part of a proposed settlement of a lawsuit brought by the timber industry. Timber industry and administration officials said they expected the changes to ease requirements for detailed surveys of forest life, including snails and fungi, which can take years to complete. Loggers see the "survey and manage" rules as a hurdle to meeting the projections of the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, which was meant to be a compromise between wildlife protection and timber cutting.

Banking Investment But environmental groups criticized the proposals as gutting a regulation that would have left about 30% of the country's national forestlands intact for future generations.

"It takes into account the area of a property that isn't suited to development, " said Frenchtown Mayor Ronald Sworen. Like Clinton Township, "We once had this in our Master Plan, " but it was removed because court rulings indicated it was illegal, he said. A state Supreme Court ruling last year found such rules were acceptable. After a review of its Master Plan, Frenchtown introduced the changes in January and passed the new rule in February, Mayor Sworen said.

Investment Solution Strategic The administration intends to propose its plan for Tongass officially this month and seek public comment. It expects to finalize the plan in December. At the same time, it aims to publish its proposal to give governors more say in managing roadless areas and to announce a plan to allow logging in Chugach National Forest near Anchorage.

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Investment Banking Services The roadless rule designed to protect the most pristine forests from logging, mining and road building has had a troubled few years.

Bank Investment In May 2001, a federal district court in Boise, Idaho, blocked it just months after it went into effect. A year and a half later, a federal appeals court reinstated it. The fate of the rule still could be affected by any of several court challenges.

Alternative Investment The Bush administration's proposal to exempt Tongass National Forest from the rule was announced as part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by the state of Alaska. The state argued that the roadless rule would violate the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which set aside millions of acres of the state for national parks, wildlife refuges and monuments and promised that the remainder of the lands would be open for multiple uses.

Online Investment Services The proposed settlement would double the number of acres available for logging in Tongass, the largest national forest, administration officials said.

Accompany Essential Investment Alaska's timber industry was elated by the news, which will give the green light to 50 timber sales that had been put on hold.

Investment Company "It certainly breathes new hope into our industry," said Owen Graham, executive director of the Alaska Forest Assn., a timber group. "We'll be able to employ twice as many people."

Investment Management Solution But conservationists accused the administration of using the excuse of the lawsuit to benefit the timber industry and disregard the public's desire to protect Alaska's wilderness.

Investment Management Services "They're going back in time and opening areas to development that people had come to expect would be protected," said Sue Libenson, spokeswoman for the Alaska Coalition, a conservation group.

Guide Investment Stock Administration officials said environmental groups were misrepresenting their proposals. Mark Rey, the undersecretary of Agriculture who oversees the Forest Service, stressed that the administration is under no obligation to retain the policy. The changes it is offering, he said, are in response to the legitimate concerns of rural America.

Investment Manual Solution "We are trying to make available relief in limited circumstances where the rule isn't working very well, where it shouldn't have been applied in the first place," Rey said. "I don't look at these as big loopholes."

Investment Stock The administration plans to exempt about 2.7 million acres from the roadless rule that it says were improperly included.

Essential Investment Solution For instance, the administration intends to shrink the roadless areas in Humboldt Toiyabe National Forest near Reno to expand a campground. It also plans to redesign the roadless areas in Ashley National Forest in northeastern Utah because local officials identified roads in those areas that were not on Forest Service maps.

Citicorp Investment Services Beyond that, Rey said, it is impossible to predict how many acres of wild national forestland will remain roadless under the Bush administration's plan because no one knows how many exemptions governors will seek.

Fool Guide Investment Motley Rey offered one example of the kind of request that the administration expects. Roadless areas of Salmon Challis National Forest in Idaho all but surround the town of Salmon. Rey said Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne may ask for an exemption so that the forest near the town could be thinned to deter forest fires.

Fidelity Investment Services However, environmentalists warned that instead of making small fixes to the policy, the administration's plan stands to destroy it.

Investment Management "The American people and the courts have spoken repeatedly and the message is the same: These last wild forests must be protected," said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. "The Bush administration has apparently not been listening to Americans. Instead, their ears have been tuned to their allies in the timber industry."

Francisco Investment San By Elizabeth Shogren
Los Angeles Times - 6/10/2003

Topic: Forests & Trees

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