 Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush favors land management policies based on local input. |
Texas Governor George W. Bush recently vowed to review all Clinton-Gore administration public land management policies, particularly the roadless area proposal.
In a campaign swing through the Pacific Northwest, the Republican presidential nominee criticized the Democratic administration for trying to protect roadless areas of national forests through regulations and executive orders that Bush said do not take the wishes of local people into account.
In an interview with The Seattle Times, Bush refused to say he would repeal the roadless area rule. However, Bush said the administration needs to talk to local officials and timber industry representatives before making decisions.
"I'm going to look at every single executive order," Bush said. "I believe the environment and industry can be balanced in a proper way. The idea of locking up 40 million acres and hoping everything turns out fine is not good land-management policy."
The USDA Forest Service released a draft environmental impact statement in May that recommended how roadless areas in national forests should be managed in the future. The proposal would prohibit new road construction or reconstruction in the unroaded portions of inventoried roadless areas in 43 million acres of national forest system lands.
The Forest Service then held hundreds of meetings around the country and received more than 1 million comments regarding the proposal before the comment period finished on July 18. (The Society of American Foresters commented on the proposal on July 14; see sidebar below.) The agency will announce a final rule as early as mid-September, according to agency sources.
The preferred alternative identified in the proposal will continue to allow roadbuilding and timber harvesting in national forest roadless areas under 5,000 acres. The proposal does not include the Tongass National Forest.
SAF's Position on the Roadless Area Proposal
"SAF favors the no action alternative and is against any nationwide prohibition on building roads, or other nationwide prohibitions on management activities that could be applied through this rule. SAF believes that all decisions about the status of inventoried and un-inventoried roadless areas should be made through the forest planning process, at the national forest level. A decision that affects all roadless areas through one national decision cannot address the unique forest conditions of each individual roadless area."
- —Comments from SAF to the USDA Forest Service, July 14
For a complete copy of the comments, visit the SAF website at http://www.safnet.org/policy/psst/roadless71400.htm.
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