Free Republic

While Congress debates legislation to speed up thinning of fire-prone forests, officials who oversee the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies are crafting administrative changes aimed at conveying portions of President Bush's controversial forest management plan. Some possible changes in regulations could be unveiled this month, Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey said in a recent telephone interview, including a "categorical exclusion" that would allow "certain categories of relatively minor fuels reduction activities" without an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement."And we're working on such a categorical exclusion right now," he said. Rey oversees the Forest Service and is also...

Wednesday, June 26, 2002NewsMax.com - PHOENIX – Self-described "environmentalists" have opposed forest management programs that could have prevented wildfires such as those burning thousands of acres in Arizona and Colorado, the new chairman of the Western Governors Association said Tuesday.President Bush also made a mocking reference Tuesday to the extremist so-called Greens, who would better be dubbed Grays, in "honor" of the ashen color of the land where pine forests once thrived.Speaking to reporters after an association meeting, Gov. Judy Martz, R-Mont., said as incoming chairman, her priority would be reducing the threat of wildfires to communities and the environment....