Editorial: Bush’s plan would harm our forests

Monday, July 19, 2004 | 9:17 a.m.

In Nevada there are roughly 3.2 million acres within the Humboldt-Toiyabe and Inyo national forests that are designated as wilderness. All of these pristine acres, protected by President Clinton in 2001 when he put into place the so-called "Roadless Rule," are now threatened by a plan put forth by the Bush administration.

Altogether, throughout the country, the Bush plan threatens 58.5 million of the 191 million acres of national forests. Within those wilderness acres of national forests, under the Clinton administration's protective regulation, no roads are allowed to be constructed. The regulation effectively blocked commercial activity in those forest lands, including mining and logging. In fact, it limited almost all human activity, with the exception of the stray hikers hardy enough to venture forth without benefit of roads or trails. The idea was to keep about a third of our national forests forever wild, to preserve their clean waters, air and soil and to ensure undisturbed wildlife habitat.

In a plan announced last week by Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, however, the Bush administration would allow state governors to have an influential say in deciding where roads can be built in national forests. "This is the biggest single giveaway to the timber industry in the history of the national forests," Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which serves a state where 2 million acres would be endangered. "The day the administration's proposal takes effect, every acre of the remaining untouched 30 percent of national forests will lose protection from logging, mining and oil drilling."

We share this same concern. The national forests belong to all Americans and millions of them travel each year to enjoy their beauty. It would be wrong to allow a state governor to make a decision about land that belongs to all of us. The national forests need to stay under the firm control of the federal government, and the Roadless Rule that Clinton signed should remain in place. Almost to the minute after Clinton signed the regulation, the timber, mining and oil interests began filing lawsuits to overturn it. The news of the Bush administration's plan was greeted with rejoicing from those quarters. But the Roadless Rule was supported by millions of Americans, and it is them that the federal government should be supporting, not the special interests.

Bush's plan must undergo a public comment period. They say if a tree falls in the forest, and no one is out there to hear, it doesn't made a sound. We hope millions of people will come out to comment on this plan, and that they will be rewarded by the sound of its fall.