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The New
York Times
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November 14, 2000, Tuesday, Late Edition -
Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 18; Column
1; National Desk
LENGTH: 665 words
HEADLINE: Expanded Logging Ban Is Proposed for National
Forests
BYLINE: By DOUGLAS JEHL
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Nov. 13
BODY:
The Forest Service recommended today that
President Clinton expand the scope of a planned environmental initiative by
banning virtually all commercial logging from the remaining roadless
areas of the national forests.
The new proposal would extend
that ban even to the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, which is the nation's
largest national forest but had been exempted from a draft proposal made public
last May. Altogether, it would broaden what was drafted as a ban on road
building alone to put a total of 54 million acres of national forest off limits
to all but extraordinary timber sales. The revised approach, which now awaits
Mr. Clinton's approval, follows the more ambitious outline that Vice President
Al Gore spelled out in his presidential campaign as the surest way to protect
public lands from development. It runs sharply counter to the approach advocated
by Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, who had criticized the administration's initial
blueprint as an excessive use of federal power.
Mr. Clinton vowed last
year to make the protection of the roadless areas his most important
public-lands legacy, and environmentalists who had criticized the earlier draft
plan said today that the new proposal came closer to making good on that vision.
"This is a real breakthrough, and it moves a long way toward delivering
on the historic promise that the president delivered a year ago," said Nathaniel
Lawrence, director of the forest project for the Natural Resources Defense
Council, an environmental group.
Altogether, the new proposal would
extend a ban on road building and virtually all logging to more than 58 million
acres of national forest, about 30 percent of the total. The earlier plan, which
excluded the Tongass, had covered 43 million acres.
Although the plan
would allow some logging under narrow circumstances, administration officials
said that if put into effect, it would bring about a 93 percent reduction in
timber sales within roadless areas from the level now anticipated.
Most
of the prohibitions would take effect immediately if Mr. Clinton accepts the
Forest Service proposal. Under the plan, however, the restrictions on the
Tongass would not be imposed until 2004, in a bow to pressures from Alaska's
congressional delegation and others who have said a continuation of logging
there is vital to the region's economy.
In a further effort at
conciliation, the Forest Service plan calls for $13 million to $20 million in
spending over the next four years to create jobs and industries in Alaskan
communities that now depend heavily on timber operations in the Tongass forest.
Matt Zencey, director of the Alaska Rainforest Campaign, criticized the
proposed four-year phase-in period for the Tongass forest and warned that the
delay would allow Alaska Republicans and a potential Bush administration to
scuttle any protection for the forest.
"There still is no good reason to
discriminate against the nation's largest national forest and deny it full
protection," Mr. Zencey said.
The revision of the Forest Service plan
comes after a public comment period that included some 300 public meetings and
generated more than 1.5 million letters and pieces of electronic mail in
response to the initial proposal. The timber industry and loggers have taken a
strong stand against the initiative, but administration officials have said the
overwhelming public reaction has been positive.
Ken Rait, who as
director of the Heritage Forests Campaign has been a leader in pressing for
broader protection for roadless areas, said today that the Forest Service had
moved "toward a common sense and responsible policy of wild forest protection."
But Mr. Rait and other environmental activists also said any final
policy must include strict limits on what kinds of logging might be allowed
under the loophole proposed by the Forest Service, which could allow timber to
be cut in roadless areas for fire prevention and other "stewardship" purposes.
http://www.nytimes.com
GRAPHIC: Photo: Part
of the southeastern Tongass National Forest in Alaska, shown in 1995 after
clear-cut logging. (Mark Kelly/Alaska Stock Images)
Map of Alaska
shows the location of Tongass National Forest: More protection is urged for the
Tongass National Forest.
LOAD-DATE: November 14, 2000
