Category: Forest Policy

Senator Barbara Boxer Proposes Designating 2.5 Million More Acres as “Wilderness” In California, by Gretchen Randall

BACKGROUND: Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) wants to designate an additional 2.5 million acres of federal land in California as wilderness with her introduction of the "California Wild Heritage Wilderness Act of 2002." Her bill (yet unnumbered) would add to 14 ...
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Tom Daschle and Senate Democrats Attack Bush Administration for Reassessing the Secretly-Developed Clinton Rule to Halt Forest Road Building, by Tom Randall

BACKGROUND: Half of all Senate Democrats recently signed a letter to President Bush accusing him of failing to uphold the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. They claimed in their letter that this so-called "Roadless Plan" was the product of years of ...
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Sportsmen and Hunting Groups Write President Bush about Forest Management, by Gretchen Randall

Ten Second Response /
BACKGROUND: In the ongoing argument over logging in national forests, a group of hunting and sportsmen's clubs wrote President Bush last week pointing out that forest management is as essential for wildlife conservation as it is for healthy forests. Young ...
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Rep. John Doolittle Introduces Bill Calling for Release of 15-Year Old Wilderness Study Areas, by Tom Randall

BACKGROUND: Congressman John T. Doolittle introduced The Wilderness Study Area Release Act, H.R. 4589 to prevent the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management from continuing to close of millions of acres of public land through improper use ...
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Bush Administration and House Democrats Oppose Bill to Restrict Federal Land Acquisition

BACKGROUND: H.R. 3962, the "Good Neighbor Act" was the subject of a U.S. House Forests and Forest Health subcommittee hearing held April 10, 2002. Under the bill's provisions, if more than 50 percent of a county's land is owned by ...
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Lincoln Chafee Advances Bill to Usurp Local Control of Land Use Planning and Zoning, by Tom Randall

Ten Second Response /
BACKGROUND: S.975, euphemistically titled the "Community Character Act," was introduced last May and is now scheduled to come before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Thursday, April 11, 2002. The bill, introduced by Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), with Senators ...
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Interior Department Proposes Joint Federal, Environmentalist Land Grab Via Tax Code, by Gretchen Randall

BACKGROUND: The U.S. Interior Department's 2003 budget recently submitted to Congress contains a "Conservation Tax Credit" that would cut the capital gains tax by 50 percent if a property owner "voluntarily sell[s] land or water to a government agency or ...
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Bush Proposes “Charter Forests,” by Gretchen Randall

Ten Second Response /
BACKGROUND: President Bush has proposed a new pilot program called "charter forests" in his 2003 budget. This proposal is not clearly defined yet but the budget does propose to "establish certain forests or portions of forests as separate entities outside ...
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Federal Government Unsure about Appealing Bitterroot Decision, by Gretchen Randall

BACKGROUND: A federal judge in Montana has barred the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) from opening 46,000 acres of the Bitterroot National Forest to salvage logging, saying the USFS decision did not allow for public comment and thus violated the Forest ...
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Endangered Species Act Studies May be Hoaxes Designed to Restrict Human Use of Government Lands, by Gretchen Randall

BACKGROUND: Seven officials from the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife were found recently to have submitted falsified samples of Canadian lynx hair to labs as part of a study ...
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