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PUBLIC
SECTOR KNOCKS "ROADLESS" DIRECTIVE On February 8, Montana joined Idaho in filing court documents opposing the Administration's proposal to designate an additional 40 to 60 million National Forest acres as "unroaded," requesting a federal court order to block it. Meanwhile, on February 10, David Jolly, a retired U.S. Forest Service regional forester, sent a letter to USFS Chief Mike Dombeck protesting the proposal. "... your notice of intent to file an environmental impact statement [is] so biased that it appears your decision has already been made. ... it appears you propose to restrict [the benefits of forest management] at a time of increasing need with no real basis for doing it. Your proposal is a signal that you have no confidence that the public in the future will do the right things with their National Forests." On February 18, the House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, chaired by Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage (R-Idaho), submitted a brief "preliminary staff report" on the procedural flaws in the Forest Service's and White House's development of the "roadless initiative." The report points out the Administration's violations of the Federal Advisory Committee Act and Administrative Procedures Act surrounding the initiative, "developed in an environmental vacuum-with virtually all input coming from a select few in the environmentalist community, primarily: Ken Rait of the Heritage Forest Campaign; Mike Francis, Bill Meadows and Charles Wilkinson of The Wilderness Society; Niel Lawrence of the Natural Resources Defense Council; Gene Karpinski of USPIRG; Marty Hayden of the Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund; Dan Beard of the Audubon Society; and Carl Pope of the Sierra Club." For the full report, visit: http://www.house.gov/resources/106cong/forests/staffreportroadlessinfluence.htm. Return to Public Policy Archive Forest Resources Association
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