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A lumberjack cuts a large fir tree in the Umpqua National Forest, near Oakridge, Oregon. Federal land managers are proposing a radical change in rules that could extend logging on Forest Service lands.
Don Ryan / AP
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Don Ryan / AP
A lumberjack cuts a large fir tree in the Umpqua National Forest, near Oakridge, Oregon. Federal land managers are proposing a radical change in rules that could extend logging on Forest Service lands.
Don Ryan / AP
On Wednesday, federal land managers will propose radical changes to a fundamental environmental law that would allow them to accelerate some forest management projects, including logging and prescribed burning.
The US Forest Service, led by Chief Vicki Christiansen, is proposing to revise the National Environmental Policy Act to limit environmental review and public participation in projects ranging from forest health and environmental protection. forest fire mitigation to the modernization of the infrastructure to commercial logging on federal lands.
"We are doing more analysis than necessary, we are taking more time than necessary, and we are slowing down important work to protect communities," Christiansen told NPR.
The proposed changes to the rules include an extension of "categorical exclusions". These are often presented as tools that give land managers the discretionary power to bypass comprehensive environmental studies in places where they can demonstrate that there would be no serious impacts or degradation for land.
The head of the US Forest Service, Vicki Christiansen, represented in his office in Washington, DC, says the proposed rule changes are about efficiency, not shortcuts.
Shuran Huang / NPR
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Shuran Huang / NPR
The head of the US Forest Service, Vicki Christiansen, represented in his office in Washington, DC, says the proposed rule changes are about efficiency, not shortcuts.
Shuran Huang / NPR
On average, according to Christiansen, the approval of projects of this type, close to 700 days, can be long. She predicted that the time could be reduced by more than half if rule changes progressed.
"I want to make it clear that the Forest Service will continue to provide high quality scientific analysis," she said. "We propose more efficiency, no shortening, in fact, [we’re] to improve, as far as possible, public participation. "
Federal agencies have long complained of "paralysis of analysis" when it comes to obtaining approval for large projects at the landscape level. Decision-makers often decry what they call frivolous lawsuits from justice-minded environmental groups that use the courts to try to stop logging on public land.
According to the government's own analysis – the last conducted in 2010 under the Obama administration – less than one-fifth of all forestry and forestry projects are however subject to citizen or citizen recourse. environmental groups. Budget cuts, particularly in the Forest Service, have diverted funding for wildlife, habitat and forestry programs to cover the exorbitant costs of forest fire suppression.
Rule changes are subject to a 60-day public comment period. Unless prosecutions are initiated, the Forest Service hopes to finalize them by next summer.
This is a story in development and will be updated.
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