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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2001

The Bush administration made changes to a controversial national forest initiative on Thursday, limiting protections for buffer zones around roadless areas.

The initiative was designed by the Clinton administration to limit road-building and logging on almost 60 million acres of forest land. Included were large roadless areas and smaller blocks surrounding those areas.

The new rules drop protections for the smaller areas.

Additionally, the rules eliminate the need to draft an environmental impact statement for road management in all roadless areas. This will allow regional forest officials more management control.

The Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, timber companies and other related industry filed a lawsuit earlier this year to stop the inititaive. A federal judge ordered the rules suspended.

The Bush administration then decided to re-examine the rules and make changes.

Get the Story:
Adminstration eases rules on roadless areas (The Spokesman Review 12/21)
Username: indianz@indianz.com, password: indianz.

Relevant Links:
Roadless Forest Plan - http://roadless.fs.fed.us
The US Forest Service - http://www.fs.fed.us

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Roadless forest rules back in court (10/16)
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Judge blocks controversial forest rules (5/11)
Decision on forest rules is big news (5/7)
Controversial forest plan delayed (2/6)
Roadless forest plan draws fire (1/8)