Garberville, California - The Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) today blasted efforts by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and the Bush Administration to weaken environmental safeguards for public lands and block citizen's efforts to protect National Forests. Under intense pressure by Republican lawmakers and the timber industry, Senator Feinstein yesterday offered a new compromise amendment on proposed legislation that would increase the amount of intensive logging on National Forests under the guise fire prevention and shut the public out of the process.
"Senator Feinstein's proposed legislation would be a severe setback to forest protection and citizen's rights, and appears to be more focused on increased logging, weakened environmental review, and decreased public participation in the management of public lands than it is about protecting communities and reducing fire severity," said Anthony Ambrose of EPIC. "Instead of working to develop proposals that would implement non-controversial, legitimate fuels reduction efforts close to communities, Senator Feinstein has proposed legislation that would encourage the Forest Service to log ancient forests in backcountry areas and sensitive watersheds. This is not the way to address fire and fuels issues in the west, and will certainly lead to widespread abuse by the agency," Ambrose continued.
According to congressional sources, Senator Feinstein, with the help of Undersecretary of Agriculture and former timber industry lobbyist Mark Rey, have crafted an amendment that would limit legal challenges to logging projects. Under the proposal, citizens could request a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop a project while challenges work their way through the courts. However, the TRO would be limited to 60 days. Citizens would then be forced to go back to a judge to request another TRO. Critics, including EPIC, say that such limitations could allow destructive projects to move forward if there is a gap between TROs. If for any reason the TRO is not extended, harmful logging projects can proceed, and the damage will already be done by the time the courts have the opportunity to review the legality of the project.
Senator Feinstein's proposed amendment also includes language that would prioritize logging in areas determined to be at risk of reburning, while providing sensitive watersheds no protection against salvage logging. This encourages extensive salvage logging and gives the Forest Service so much latitude that healthy trees and forests could be logged, and the public would have little to say about it.
There is no scientific evidence supporting the notion that logging an area that has been burned prevents future fires. On the contrary, many scientific studies have concluded that logging actually increases fire risk because it removes the most fire resistant trees and leaves highly flammable logging debris behind. Salvage logging has also been shown to cause significant environmental harm to water quality, soils, fish and wildlife. The proposed legislation would encourage such destructive logging, while limiting the ability of citizens to challenge ill-conceived logging proposals.
Senator Feinstein's amendment would also allow new road construction to facilitate logging in backcountry areas, and extend the use of waivers of citizen input to speed projects along -- neither of which help protect homes and communities threatened by forest fires.
"Unfortunately, Senator Feinstein has decided to go along with the Bush Administration's attempts to weaken environmental laws and limit citizen participation in the management of public lands. They are playing on the public's fears of wildfires to push forward industrial-strength logging projects in our nation's wild forests, all under the guise of 'fire risk reduction.' Feinstein's compromise is not about 'forest restoration' or 'community protection' at all - just increased logging and reduced agency accountability," said Ambrose.
"Senator Feinstein needs to understand that the majority of the American public does not support increased logging of ancient forests on public lands or the further elimination of citizen's rights. The proposed legislation would be a repeat of the disastrous 1995 'Lawless Logging Rider' which allowed the Forest Service to log old growth forests and endangered species habitat that had previously been protected," Ambrose continued. "We are disappointed that Senator Feinstein has failed to work with other Democratic Senators to develop alternative legislation that that focuses fuel reduction efforts near homes and communities without suspending or weakening environmental laws, citizen appeals or judicial review."
