Forest Service Says Rule Saved Homes
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON – A federal rule that allowed expedited logging on national forests saved thousands of homes during the recent wildfires in California, the Forest Service chief said.
Gail Kimbell cited “some real vivid examples” in California where the agency’s practice of logging without first analyzing its effect on the environment protected homes and spared lives.
“The hazardous fuels treatments were instrumental saving thousands of homes” in southern California during recent wildfires near San Diego and Lake Arrowhead, Kimbell said.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the practice Wednesday, saying it violated the National Environmental Policy Act. Kimbell said the Bush administration was considering whether to appeal.
The rule allowing expedited logging was “not a blanket to go through all of California” to thin forests, Kimbell said. “We are very specific where we do it.’
While the 2003 rule allows logging of up to 1,000 acres without environmental review, most projects are closer to 40 acres or 50 acres, Kimbell said. “It’s surgically selected” in areas with low environmental risk, she said.
The 2003 rule was billed as a way to reduce wildfires. It exempted from environmental review logging projects up to 1,000 acres and prescribed forest burns up to 4,500 acres.
In its opinion Wednesday, the three-judge appeals court panel said the Forest Service had failed to properly analyze the rule, causing “irreparable injury” by allowing more than 1.2 million acres of national forest land to be logged and burned each year without studying the ecological impacts.
The court ruled that the Forest Service no longer can exempt such projects from environmental analysis until the rule can be analyzed properly.
The ruling sided with the Sierra Club and Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign. The groups said the ruling would protect millions of acres of national forest from destructive and unnecessary logging projects.
(c) 2007 Charleston Daily Mail. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.