More Clinton-Gore Progress

[Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

November 21, 2000

        New Rules Clear Path for Loggers


        A.P. INDEXES: TOP STORIES | NEWS | SPORTS | BUSINESS |
TECHNOLOGY | ENTERTAINMENT


        By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

        Filed at 9:51 p.m. ET

        PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The federal government has
        revised guidelines for protecting rare plants and animals in
        the Northwest's old growth forests, a move critics say clears
        the way for increased logging.

        The new plan drops more than 60 species from the list of
        plants, animals and other forest life that biologists must
        identify before logging can begin on national forests and
        Bureau of Land Management lands.

        The list was released Monday. Officials who oversee the
        Forest Service and BLM are expected to put the guidelines
        into effect in January.

        Conservation groups say they may challenge the revised
        guidelines in federal court, claiming they undermine the
        Clinton administration's goal of protecting old-growth forests
        and wildlife.

        ``They're basically making it easier to log old growth,'' said
        Doug Heiken of the Oregon Natural Resources Council.

        ``We may know more about these species, but we still have
        enough uncertainty to remain cautious,'' Heiken said. ``I
        don't think we know enough to start dropping species left
        and right.''

        The original list was part of the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan,
        an attempt by the Clinton administration to balance logging
        with species protection on federal lands after
        environmentalists won lawsuits to protect habitat for the
        northern spotted owl, a threatened species.

        The list included some species so rare they may not be
        native to the Northwest, such as a tiny mushroom found
        mainly in Wyoming.

        Federal officials said their shortened list of about 340 species

        should streamline long and costly surveys for slugs, fungi,
        lichen, moss and other organisms that have often slowed
        logging.

        ``We included some of these species because we didn't
        know much about them,'' said BLM spokesman Chris
        Strebig. ``Now we're fine-tuning based on new information,
        to make sure we meet both tenets of the Northwest Forest
        Plan -- to protect species and to provide reasonable timber
        harvest.''

--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx