WildEarth Guardians

Wednesday, December 3, 2003
Bush Approval of Healthy Forest Restoration Act Sacrifices Remote Forests, Public Input

President Bush's approval of the deceptively titled 'Healthy Forests' legislation will increase logging on pristine backcountry forests far removed from communities at risk of forest fire
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

Santa Fe, NM - Today, Environmental activists and concerned citizens from across the country decried the passing of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, a bill that signals the first major shift in national forest policy in over 25 years. President Bush's approval of the deceptively titled 'Healthy Forests' legislation will increase logging on pristine backcountry forests far removed from communities at risk of forest fire.

In his initial proposal, President Bush heralded the bill as a solution to the U.S. Forest Service's 90-plus years of fire suppression in national forests. Fire suppression along with prolonged drought conditions have produced tinderbox fire conditions that pose a threat along the growing housing developments built near forested areas. However, in direct contrast to administration promises, the law fails to assist communities at the greatest risk of forest fire and allows for expedited logging projects in backcountry areas, enabling timber companies to remove fire-resistant, commercial-sized trees and thereby increase risk of forest fires.

"It's outrageous for the Bush Administration to exploit the suffering of families in California and throughout America who lost homes and loved ones in order to reward timber industry campaign contributors," said Dustin Garrick, Forest Policy Coordinator for WildEarth Guardians. "The Act not only fails to address critically fire prone communities but also excludes the public from decisions that affect shared public lands, precious wildlife, and old-growth forests."

The Bush forest policy passed in the wake of a below average fire season punctuated by the destructive fires in California last month. Though these fires prompted Congress to pass Bush's forest legislation, the new bill will not include measures that could have reduced the scale and damage caused by the California fires, according to fire experts.

During the California wildfires, the U.S. Geological Survey issued a press release on October 31, 2003 claiming that fire suppression had not caused the California fires. The release also claimed that thinning would not have prevented the fires.

In addition to enabling logging in remote backcountry areas, the law will drastically curtail public input on 20 million acres of National Forests, including roadless areas, wilderness-quality forests and old growth forest stands that serve as critical havens for threatened and endangered wildlife.

Also see an op-ed at Billings Gazette: California wildfires can't justify 'Healthy Forests' bill by Thomas Michael Power, Professor of Economics

WildEarth Guardians mission is to "protect and restore the native wildlands and wildlife of the American Southwest through fundamental reform of public policy and practices."