Seattle Times  Thursday, December 12, 2002
vSweeping shift in forest policy: Bush plan would skip environmental reviews
vWASHINGTON — In a sweeping forest-policy revision, the Bush administration announced plans yesterday to fundamentally alter how it manages federal lands by skipping extensive environmental reviews in the name of wildfire prevention.
vThe proposal is part of a strategy to streamline environmental laws and help the land-management bureaucracy tick along more smoothly. It would allow the administration, in many cases, to skip traditional environmental analysis for projects that reduce wildfire risks or rehabilitate forests after wildfires occur.
vBut environmentalists saw the changes as an attempt to remove the public's voice from decision-making while the administration tries to boost logging on federal lands. And some in Congress viewed the proposals as an attempt to sidestep lawmakers.
vThe debate heated up last fall, after more than 7 million acres burned nationwide and President Bush announced his "Healthy Forests Initiative." The plan called for a range of changes, from limiting bureaucratic processes and appeals to expediting work that reduces wildfire dangers.