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Defenders Magazine
Defenders in Action: Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Bush Plan Would Destroy National Forests
Defenders of Wildlife generated about 200,000
e-mails to the Bush administration protesting its latest attack on the
—environment an attempt to throw open America's 155 national forests and
20 national grasslands to more unregulated exploitation by timber, oil and
mining industries.
The administration wants to essentially toss out rules
that for a quarter-century have governed how we use these 192 million acres that
Americans keep in trust. Amazingly, forest managers no longer would even be
required to ensure the survival of native wildlife.
The administration tried to sneak its proposal by the
public with a quiet statement timed for the Thanksgiving holiday. But Defenders
and its supporters alerted the news media, and the editorial condemnation came
quickly.
The Los Angeles Times called it "selling out" the
forests. The Buffalo News said the plan aims "to circumvent the
public and fill the coffers of logging and resource extraction companies at the
expense of national forests." The San Antonio Express-News said the
Thanksgiving-eve announcement gave the timber industry "much reason to give
thanks." And the San Francisco Chronicle said "the Bush administration is
about to abandon a fish-and-wildlife-protection ethic that has guided
national-forest policy for more than two decades."
