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The Bush administration released the final environmental impact statement yesterday on a proposal that would change the development of management plans for almost 200 million acres of national forest.
After reviewing about 79,000 public comments on the draft report, the Forest Service opted to develop a new preferred alternative that it says provides for extensive public participation and is flexible enough to respond to changing forest conditions.
"This exceeds National Environmental Policy Act requirements for public involvement," David Dillard, who coordinates ecosystem management for the service, said in a statement. "Our goal is to create strong, relevant conversations that address local issues as well as incorporate the latest available science and technology in the plans."
But environmentalists said the new EIS falls short, despite the promise of improved monitoring and sustainability standards for wildlife and the requirement that environmental management be put in place prior to the start of a project.
"It's an EIS in name only," said Marc Fink, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "They've added another alternative, but they're still not analyzing anything."
The preferred alternative incorporates many of the elements of a 2005 rule that was blocked by a federal judge in San Francisco last year. The judge ruled the Forest Service removed environmental protections without providing for proper public comment or considering the effect on endangered species (E&ENews PM, March 30, 2007).
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.
The Forest Service and timber industry claims the 2005 rule properly focuses attention at the project level, but critics say plans developed under the 2005 rule and the final EIS would make it more difficult to challenge individual projects and would substitute categorical exclusions for environmental impact statements for forest plans.
"Our position is that in a age of global warming, we should be looking at these forests as a stronghold for fish and wildlife and is the wrong time to weaken those provisions," Fink said.
The administration had appealed last year's ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals but asked the court last month to withdraw its appeal in anticipation of yesterday's release of the EIS.
The EIS will now be sent to the Agriculture Department for a decision on a final rule for forest planning. The Record of Decision and final rule are expected to be published in the Federal Register in approximately 30 days.
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