national forests; regulation; environment

The Bush Administration issued new rules designed to more efficiently manage the nation's 155 national forests, allowing regional forest managers to determine appropriate usage, such as logging, drilling, or cell-phone tower construction. Regional National Forestry Service (NFS) managers view the new rules as a step in the right direction, allowing them greater flexibility to revise the current process for environmental usage, which requires a burdensome review process. Environmental groups, on the other hand, decried the policy for eliminating any oversight of forest managers, who may have no incentive to.

A compromise measure allows regional NFS officials greater autonomy in making environmental management decisions, but also provides for audits by independent groups. Note, though, that forestry officials will now have greater choice in determining the extent and makeup of the audit teams. Some additional regulations are significantly altered. For example, a current regulation requires forest managers to keep all fish and wildlife species from going extinct. This regulation has changed so that managers will simply be required to consider the "best available science" in determining the most appropriate usage of all natural resources.