Forest Service Recommendations Fall Short

(03/17/2005) - WASHINGTON -- The Forest Service today released its recommendations to federal forest managers for how they may want to manage the nation's forests and grasslands. National Forest managers are no longer held to any higher authority than their own discretion when managing national forests under new standardless regulations published in January. 

Today the Forest Service is, however, providing them with a list of things to consider when making decisions about how to manage the public's forests. This is a far cry from the clear, mandatory directions and regulations given to local forest managers by the Carter, Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton administrations. Directives, such as the recommendations released today, are harder for the public to monitor, influence, and enforce than regulations.

"Instead of rules, this administration meekly gives federal forest managers a set of recommendations that timidly suggest ways they could manage the public's forests, if they choose," stated Mike Leahy, staff attorney with Defenders of Wildlife. "It's the height of arrogance to suggest federal officials do not need to be held accountable to anyone but themselves when managing public resources."

The Forest Service says its new recommendations provide species protections, but neither these recommendations nor the regulations released in January contain any protections for species short of their being listed under the Endangered Species Act. In fact, protections for wildlife put in place by the Reagan Administration were eliminated in the January regulations.

The Forest Service says its new recommendations provide guidance on public participation, which is only necessary because the regulations released in January provide little to no indication of how the public will be involved in forest planning. All previous National Forest regulations had clear procedures and avenues for public involvement and oversight of national forest planning and management.

The Forest Service's recommendations do provide guidance on developing newly required Environmental Management Systems ("EMS") for each national forest, but this is only needed because land management was always previously done through the much stronger and clearer provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA"). No one had previously considered replacing NEPA on major federal land management decisions with an EMS, which is a standardless corporate tool for monitoring pollution.

"These modest recommendations do not give us any more confidence than the standardless regulations the Administration released in January that the Forest Service will manage the public's forests in the public's best interest," concluded Mike Leahy.

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