Monday, December 18, 2006

With Friends Like These...

You can tell a lot about the new Forest Service rules on long-term planning by who supports them:

The timber industry supports the new policy. Chris West, the vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, a trade group in 12 Western states, called it overdue.
Not that I'm really surprised. Every place where environmental concerns have bumped up against the interests of industry, in fact every place where any kind of concern bumped up against industry interests, BushCo. has appointed former industry officials to powerful posts.

The U.S. Forest Service no longer will give close environmental scrutiny to its long-term plans for America's national forests and grasslands.


It also no longer will allow the public to appeal on long-term plans for those forests, but instead will invite participation in planning from the outset.
And we all know how diligently they listen to the public.

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