Post by Lyle on Mar 18, 2003 19:07:53 GMT -5
TO: United Four Wheel Drive Associations
FROM: Carla Boucher, Attorney
RE: Planning Rule from Bush Administration
DATE: March 18, 2003
When forwarding this on please give proper attribution to Carla Boucher and United Four Wheel Drive Associations. Thank you.
WHAT: The Bush administration has created a proposed rule to amend the regulations governing the U.S. Forest Service process for revising and amending forest plans.
This new proposed rule would amend the Clinton Administration’s 2000 Planning Rule.
BACKGROUND:
* PHASE 1:
Until the 2000 Clinton Rule was made final, land and resource management plans (forest plans) were revised every 10 to 15 years as regulated by the National Forest Management Act (NFMA). Forest plans direct long-term management of the national forests by establishing goals for the forest. Then, when individual projects are needed, those projects are implemented based upon the goals of the forest plan.
The National Forest Management Act was passed by Congress in 1976. Section 6 of the act states that forest plans have two goals when they are being developed:
(1) to provide for multiple use and sustained yield of the products and services obtained therefrom in accordance with the Multiple-Use, Sustained Yield Act of 1960, and in particular, include coordination of outdoor recreation, range, timber, watershed, wildlife and fish, and wilderness; and
(2) to determine forest management systems, harvesting levels, and procedures in light of all of the uses set forth in subsection (c)(1), the definition of terms “multiple use” and “sustained yield” as provided in the Multiple-Use, Sustained-Yield Act of 1960, and the availability of lands and their suitability for resource management.
To carry out these two goals, and to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Forest Service developed regulations for themselves to follow in making forest plans. It is these regulations (adopted in 1982) that the 2000 Clinton rule changed.
* PHASE 2:
The Clinton Administration’s 2000 Planning Rule amended the 1982 regulations. The biggest change made in 2000 was to change the focus of forest planning from multiple-use and sustained-yield to focusing on species and ecological viability and sustainability to the exclusion of multiple-use by returning forest composition to what it looked like during Pre-European times. European settlement of the United States was around 1565 when the Spanish founded the first permanent European town of St. Augustine, Florida. Remember, Lewis and Clark did not settle the West until the 1800s. The first book was not printed in the Colonies until 1640, and European Settlement occurred 200 years BEFORE Benjamin Franklin experimented with electricity (1747). European settlement occurred 300 years before the first steam engine was invented, and 400 years before the first gas engine was invented. The point here is that a forest composition resembling Pre-European times would certainly have no roads or trails, which is precisely the point of those who drafted the 2000 rule.
* PHASE 3: Now, the Bush administration is proposing changes to the 2000 regulations. The purpose of this new rule is to return to the legally-mandated focus of sustainability and multiple use as required by NFMA and the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act. This new rule proposes a planning process that focuses both on yield and ecological sustainability.
WHAT TO DO:
Comments regarding the proposed rule must be made no later than April 7, 2003. I have provided a form letter below to help you in making your comments.
**********************************
USDA FS Planning Rule
Content Analysis Team
P.O. Box 8359
Missoula, MT 59807
via e-mail: planning_rule@fs.fed.us
via facsimile: (406) 329-3556
March 18, 2003
Dear Planning Team,
Please accept my comments regarding the proposed planning rule published on December 6, 2002 in the Federal Register, Volume 67, page 72769.
* If the scope of the action constitutes a plan, revision, or amendment then the action should not be categorically excluded from NEPA analysis. All actions that constitute a plan, revision, or amendment must be subject to NEPA and its implementing regulations.
* The public must be able to rely on a uniformity of process from unit to unit of the national forest system. Therefore, a uniform process for public involvement in planning must be provided in the final rule.
* Interim Amendments should be limited to issues of an urgent nature and be restricted to a period of time of no more than 1 year. The Responsible Official must provide sufficient information to demonstrate the emergent nature of an Interim Amendment. Do not permit any extension to the 1 year duration for Interim Amendments.
* Please adopt Option 1 in the final rule for Section 219.13(b).
* As proposed, form letters, check-off lists, pre-printed post cards, or similar duplicative materials will not be accepted as objections. The proposed rule fails to indicate how many of the same letter constitute a form letter and whose objections will not be accepted should more than one of the same letter, list, or card be received. The rule also fails to indicate whether the sender of duplicative material not accepted by the agency will have exhausted administrative remedies. The final rule must accept objections whether duplicative in nature or not.
Thank you
[Name]
[Address]
FROM: Carla Boucher, Attorney
RE: Planning Rule from Bush Administration
DATE: March 18, 2003
When forwarding this on please give proper attribution to Carla Boucher and United Four Wheel Drive Associations. Thank you.
WHAT: The Bush administration has created a proposed rule to amend the regulations governing the U.S. Forest Service process for revising and amending forest plans.
This new proposed rule would amend the Clinton Administration’s 2000 Planning Rule.
BACKGROUND:
* PHASE 1:
Until the 2000 Clinton Rule was made final, land and resource management plans (forest plans) were revised every 10 to 15 years as regulated by the National Forest Management Act (NFMA). Forest plans direct long-term management of the national forests by establishing goals for the forest. Then, when individual projects are needed, those projects are implemented based upon the goals of the forest plan.
The National Forest Management Act was passed by Congress in 1976. Section 6 of the act states that forest plans have two goals when they are being developed:
(1) to provide for multiple use and sustained yield of the products and services obtained therefrom in accordance with the Multiple-Use, Sustained Yield Act of 1960, and in particular, include coordination of outdoor recreation, range, timber, watershed, wildlife and fish, and wilderness; and
(2) to determine forest management systems, harvesting levels, and procedures in light of all of the uses set forth in subsection (c)(1), the definition of terms “multiple use” and “sustained yield” as provided in the Multiple-Use, Sustained-Yield Act of 1960, and the availability of lands and their suitability for resource management.
To carry out these two goals, and to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Forest Service developed regulations for themselves to follow in making forest plans. It is these regulations (adopted in 1982) that the 2000 Clinton rule changed.
* PHASE 2:
The Clinton Administration’s 2000 Planning Rule amended the 1982 regulations. The biggest change made in 2000 was to change the focus of forest planning from multiple-use and sustained-yield to focusing on species and ecological viability and sustainability to the exclusion of multiple-use by returning forest composition to what it looked like during Pre-European times. European settlement of the United States was around 1565 when the Spanish founded the first permanent European town of St. Augustine, Florida. Remember, Lewis and Clark did not settle the West until the 1800s. The first book was not printed in the Colonies until 1640, and European Settlement occurred 200 years BEFORE Benjamin Franklin experimented with electricity (1747). European settlement occurred 300 years before the first steam engine was invented, and 400 years before the first gas engine was invented. The point here is that a forest composition resembling Pre-European times would certainly have no roads or trails, which is precisely the point of those who drafted the 2000 rule.
* PHASE 3: Now, the Bush administration is proposing changes to the 2000 regulations. The purpose of this new rule is to return to the legally-mandated focus of sustainability and multiple use as required by NFMA and the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act. This new rule proposes a planning process that focuses both on yield and ecological sustainability.
WHAT TO DO:
Comments regarding the proposed rule must be made no later than April 7, 2003. I have provided a form letter below to help you in making your comments.
**********************************
USDA FS Planning Rule
Content Analysis Team
P.O. Box 8359
Missoula, MT 59807
via e-mail: planning_rule@fs.fed.us
via facsimile: (406) 329-3556
March 18, 2003
Dear Planning Team,
Please accept my comments regarding the proposed planning rule published on December 6, 2002 in the Federal Register, Volume 67, page 72769.
* If the scope of the action constitutes a plan, revision, or amendment then the action should not be categorically excluded from NEPA analysis. All actions that constitute a plan, revision, or amendment must be subject to NEPA and its implementing regulations.
* The public must be able to rely on a uniformity of process from unit to unit of the national forest system. Therefore, a uniform process for public involvement in planning must be provided in the final rule.
* Interim Amendments should be limited to issues of an urgent nature and be restricted to a period of time of no more than 1 year. The Responsible Official must provide sufficient information to demonstrate the emergent nature of an Interim Amendment. Do not permit any extension to the 1 year duration for Interim Amendments.
* Please adopt Option 1 in the final rule for Section 219.13(b).
* As proposed, form letters, check-off lists, pre-printed post cards, or similar duplicative materials will not be accepted as objections. The proposed rule fails to indicate how many of the same letter constitute a form letter and whose objections will not be accepted should more than one of the same letter, list, or card be received. The rule also fails to indicate whether the sender of duplicative material not accepted by the agency will have exhausted administrative remedies. The final rule must accept objections whether duplicative in nature or not.
Thank you
[Name]
[Address]