On October 21 President Clinton signed a massive $500 billion appropriations package that funded large sections of the federal government for fiscal 1999. The 4,000-page, 40-pound bill contained several legislative provisions important to forest resource management.

The forest-related provisions in the legislation were not the major hurdles in the complex negotiations between the administration and the Republican majority in Congress. Such high profile spending compromises as funding for the International Monetary Fund, hiring 100,000 new teachers, relief for farmers and ranchers, and defense spending proved to be the most contentious battlegrounds. But natural resources issues were in the mix of hotly contested matters. Even after the GOP and the administration announced an agreement on the legislation's main sticking points, they continued with last minute haggling over environmental measures in the bill.

As the final version of the legislation was voted on in the waning days of the 105th Congress--less than two weeks before the elections--President Clinton announced that the administration had managed to fend off most of the "anti-environment" provisions proposed by the Republican majority.

The Republican riders--amendments unrelated to the intent of the bill--met stiff opposition from the administration and the environmental community. The administration charged that pushing the measures through as riders was a ploy to avoid public hearings and roll call votes that might have uncovered more opposition. Vice-President Al Gore attacked the GOP for using "stealth tactics."

Highlighting the legislation's increased funding for clean water, land conservation, and combating global warming, the White House declared victory on environmental issues. The White House also persuaded Republicans to drop or dilute measures that would have put a road through the Izembek Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, discontinued the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project, and barred further planning on how to deal with global warming.

Although Republicans scrapped the bulk of their proposed riders during negotiations over the legislation, President Clinton did accept the remaining provisions to get the bill passed and avoid a government shutdown.

The legislation's major forest-related measures do the following:

End the purchaser road credit program. In keeping with a pact concluded earlier this year between House GOP moderates and western Republicans, the bill terminates a program that paid forest products companies for building roads in national forests with credits against the amount they paid for federal timber.

Continue the moratorium on forest plans. There will be a continuation of the moratorium on revising individual national forest plans until the agency completes its overhaul of planning regulations.

Quincy Library Group provision becomes law. The legislation includes a provision allowing a special management regime for three national forests in California based on recommendations from a group of government officials, forest products industry representatives, and local environmentalists who met in the Quincy, California, library. The provision would double the amount of logging permitted in the Plumas, Lassen, and Tahoe national forests in the northern Sierra Nevada - to 230 million board feet a year.

Increase funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The legislation includes $328 million for the government's land-buying account, which the federal government relies on to acquire land it considers threatened or important for environmental or cultural reasons. The money is distributed among the National Park Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the USDA Forest Service. The administration's budget requested $270 million, a shade under fiscal 1998 funding.