We expect, in short order, the administration and its allies will use the Christmas Tree red-tape invention to further weaken the bedrock environmental laws that protect our public forests and assure an open government. On the last warm Friday in September, I visited a place the Forest Service does not want citizens to see, a forest where yellow-bellied, old growth pines are marked for logging. The rub is that these giants, on a part of the Santa Fe National Forest designated by Congress to protect its natural values, were to be logged with essentially no public input and environmental analysis under a loophole created by President Bush known as the categorical exclusion. President Bush created this loophole in 2003 in an effort to facilitate more logging on national forests. In September a federal judge in California, appointed by Bush's own father, found that the loophole violated the government's obligation to analyze the environmental effects of its actions and the people's right to participate in government decisions. The Forest Service, upset that the judge found this illegal, not to mention undemocratic, shifted into overdrive to manipulate public perception. Instead of complying with the ruling, the Forest Service fabricated untruths, alleging that the judge's ruling prevented them from erecting trail signs, cleaning outhouses at campgrounds and even cutting the National Christmas Tree. Such tactics are a hallmark of the Bush administration: Bury the facts under an avalanche of misinformation conveniently chosen to provoke strong emotional reactions among the public. Thus the Yuletide carol of the endangered National Christmas Tree. Claims by the Forest Service that the California lawsuit has stopped every small project, including the cutting of the National Christmas Tree, are grossly untrue. The Forest Service is intentionally holding up legitimate, smaller projects including the National Christmas Tree in order to create a "train wreck" over the legal ruling- ultimately to prompt legislative action from Congress. Last week, Santa Fe National Forest Supervisor Gilbert Zepeda stirred the pot by claiming that the National Christmas tree was not likely to be held up, but "you never know what might come up." The truth of the matter- as the legal ruling made clear- is that many small or routine projects don't need rigorous environmental documentation and therefore can proceed normally. The plaintiffs even requested that small projects other than timber sales and 10 other significant activities continue to be exempt from the public notice rules. However, larger projects like timber sales and prescribed burning must be analyzed and citizens have the right to provide input. This government shortcut was challenged by conservationists in federal court precisely because it was being abused as an end run around democracy and participatory government. For example, right here in northern New Mexico, the categorical exclusion loophole had been applied to nearly every single logging and thinning project on one part of the Carson National Forest. More than 200 local citizens living in and near the Carson, frustrated by the exclusion of their opinions, signed a petition demanding an end to this practice. We expect, in short order, the administration and its allies will use the Christmas Tree red-tape invention to further weaken the bedrock environmental laws that protect our public forests and assure an open government. Look for crises to be manufactured following the natural disasters in the South as well as fire and insects. Though the terms of the new debate will be framed as "reforestation," "restoration" and "recovery," these are no more than euphemisms for logging. We have a moral obligation to stand up and protect our natural heritage, the forests and wildlife that grace our mountains and river ways. We are especially obliged to beat back each and every attempt to push citizens out of government decision-making. Organizations like WildEarth Guardians are pledged to this cause and weigh very carefully any challenges mounted to ill-conceived forest management. Numerous projects, including fuels reduction and forest restoration, proceed undisputed; we never hear about them. Using its own numbers in 2003, the government found that 95 percent of all fuels reduction projects went unchallenged. Despite its own facts, the Bush administration successfully manipulated public opinion to advance its "Leave No Tree Behind" forest policies. Our environmental laws- the National Environmental Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act, to name a few- exist as a set of checks and balances for the well-being of our society. They were well-conceived and many were signed by Republican presidents. We must not be persuaded by fabricated crises such as the Christmas tree fable only to lose what Americans before us worked so hard to establish. Copyright 2005 Albuquerque Journal - Reprinted with permission |
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