Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. (Photo courtesy of the National Park Service)
The US Forest Service has just released new
rules for managing the nation’s forests. Some
environmental groups say the new rules don’t do enough
to protect wildlife. They also believe it will mean more
logging on national forest land. Mark Brush reports:
Transcript
The US Forest Service has just released new
rules for managing the nation’s forests. Some
environmental groups say the new rules don’t do enough
to protect wildlife. They also believe it will mean more
logging on national forest land. Mark Brush reports:
The National Forest Service is required to draw up management plans for all 155
National Forests. Environmentalists say the new rules for drawing up these management
plans gut environmental protection standards.
The Center for Biological Diversity along with 13 other environmental groups have filed
suit against the Forest Service. They say the new rules will keep citizens in the dark.
Marc Fink is a lawyer for the Center.
“We’re talking about our public national forests. And I think it’s important to give the
citizens who are concerned about these forest the right to have meaningful standards to
hold their local officials accountable for when they’re proposing projects that might be
bad for the forests.”
Fink says, if the plan goes forward, logging could increase, or wildlife habitat could be
damaged without the public knowing about it.
The Forest Service says it’s just trying to take the red tape out of the forest planning
process.
For the Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.