Washington, D.C. - President Clinton's recent proposal directing the U.S. Forest Service to initiate regulations to lock-up more than 40 million acres of federal forests as "roadless" areas will be the focus of a Congressional oversight hearing on Wednesday.
The hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Resources is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, November 3, in 1324 Longworth HOB. A live audio broadcast of the hearing will be available on the Committee website at:
Witness List
On October 13, President Clinton announced "a sweeping new effort to preserve millions of pristine acres within America's national forests," according to the White House press release. To carry out this plan, the President issued a memorandum to the Secretary of Agriculture on "Protection of Forest 'Roadless' Areas." The memo directs the Forest Service "to develop, and propose for public comment, regulations to provide appropriate long-term protection for most or all of these currently inventoried 'roadless' areas, and to determine whether such protection is warranted for any smaller 'roadless' areas not yet inventoried."
U.S. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), the Chairman of the Committee, said the President's actions were "a flagrant violation of law and an abuse of the power given to the President and the Forest Service to regulate the uses of our forest system."
"The National Forest Management Act sets up a lengthy and deliberative process for planning for each individual unit of the National Forest System," Young said. "This law insures that the public is included in the process and that science is used as the basis for decisions affecting our forests. Again, Congress has sought to achieve a fair balance between various uses of the forests and also has sought to protect the forests from fire, disease, and decay. The President's poll-based policy destroys all of our past efforts to bring about good management of our Forests. His proposal would clearly violate all of our laws that govern how policy on forests is made."
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