| Bush admin drops appeal of national forest planning rule |
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The Bush administration moved yesterday to drop its appeal of a
California judge's decision to vacate the Forest Service rule that
governs how management plans are developed for 193 million acres of
national forest.
The Justice Department, along with timber industry intervenors, asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to withdraw their appeal yesterday. Marc Fink, attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the 20 environmental groups along with the state of California who challenged the rule, said the groups had no objection to the request. In March, Judge Phyllis Hamilton enjoined the Bush administration's 2005 planning rule, saying the Forest Service removed environmental protections without providing for proper public comment or considering the effect on endangered species (E&ENews PM, March 30). Although Forest Service officials were unable to explain their decision to drop the appeal, the case was likely moot as the agency unveiled a new draft planning rule last August, including an environmental impact statement (Greenwire, Aug. 17). The comment period on the rule closed in October. Like the 2005 version, the rule focuses attention and environmental review at the project level, rather than at the planning level. The planning rule determines how the 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands develop their individual forest plans, documents that govern activities from timber harvests to recreation and protecting endangered plants and animals. Environmentalists say forest plans developed under the 2005 rule would make it more difficult to challenge individual projects, because the new plans have no enforceable standards such as specific limits on logging or watershed protections. Hamilton ruled on procedural grounds and did not address the substance of the 2005 rule. Fink noted a federal judge also threw out the Forest Service's planning rule in 2000 and suggested the agency move in a different direction or use Reagan-era regulations he said have proven successful. "It is time for the Forest Service to stop wasting resources or use the 1982 regulations that worked fine for decades," Fink said. Click here to view Judge Hamilton's ruling.
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