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37 °F 5 Day Forecast Monday, December 29, 2003 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | eSouthernOregon | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend November 22, 2003 Loggers, environmentalists split as thinning bill passes Wire and staff reports Congress approved legislation Friday that reflects the "Healthy Forests Initiative" President Bush announced during a visit to the Medford area in August 2002. The measure would reduce the risk of wildfires on 20 million acres of federal forestland by speeding removal of overgrown brush and diseased trees, especially near homes and towns, lawmakers said. The Senate passed the bill by a voice vote less than an hour after the House approved it 286-140. U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, who co-sponsored the original bill dubbed the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (HR 1904), said the final product would create jobs, improve forest health and protect communities. The bill mirrors what Bush called for in comments made while visiting the site of the Squires Peak fire in the Little Applegate Valley in summer 2002. He also gave a speech at the Jackson County Expo later that day, unveiling the Healthy Forests Initiative. Advertisement Fellow Oregon U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield, said the bill, if properly implemented, "will begin to undo 100 years of mismanagement of national forests." The final bill, which now goes to President Bush for his signature, drew applause from the timber industry but appalled many members of the environmental community. "I don’t think it will be a great boon for the forest products industry, but it will pay dividends for environmental and social reasons," said Dave Hill, executive vice president of the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association. Hill, who expects to study the full bill early next week, has been following it since Walden and U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., introduced HR 1904 earlier this year. "It will lead to more fuel reduction and thinning work on public land," he said. "This action is good for the West, and for Southern Oregon in particular." But Spencer Lennard, executive director of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, called it a "misguided wildfire bill." He believes it will leave rural homes and communities vulnerable to wildfire, severely limit public participation, undercut the National Environmental Policy Act and fail to protect old-growth forests. "The public has been fooled again," he said, adding, "Every rural landowner in the West knows that wildfire issues are related to small fuels buildup, not big trees." Environmentalists say the bill doesn’t focus on the urban interface where the work is needed. " . . . Congress has given the green light to more logging of large trees in the backcountry," Lennard said. "Such cutting of big trees increases, not reduces, the wildfire risk for adjacent communities." The measure would limit appeals and environmental reviews so that forest-thinning can be completed within months rather than years. The combination of dry underbrush and legal opposition had turned some Western forests into tinderboxes, supporters of the bill said. "Lawsuits and red tape have led to inaction, and inaction has led to millions of acres that are destined to burn so hot and move so fast that communities have no choice but to evacuate," said Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif. Pombo, chairman of the House Resources Committee, said the bill will be seen as a significant turning point, "when scientific management began to regain dominance over benign neglect, and when communities began to regain influence over the federal lands surrounding them." Wildfires in California burned nearly 750,000 acres this fall, causing 22 deaths and destroying more than 3,600 homes. They also softened opposition to the bill, and Democrats accused Bush and other Republicans of using the wildfires as an excuse to open up remote forests to logging. Some Democrats argued in the House debate that the bill was a giveaway to the timber industry because it limits public participation and leaves old-growth trees and remote, roadless areas of forests at risk of logging. "We’re not interested in healthy forests," said Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y. "What we are interested in is a big giveaway to people who want to cut down trees on public lands. That’s what this bill is all about." The measure would authorize $760 million a year for thinning projects on 20 million acres of federal land — a $340 million increase. At least half of all money spent on those projects must be near homes and communities. The bill also creates a major change in the way that federal courts consider legal challenges of tree-cutting projects. Judges would have to weigh the environmental consequences of inaction and the risk of fire in cases involving thinning projects. Any court order blocking such projects would have to be reconsidered every 60 days. The bill’s chances were greatly improved after the deadly wildfires that hit California this fall. Two California lawmakers, Pombo and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, were instrumental in crafting the final compromise. 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