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March 15, 2003
Interior official pitches President Bush's plan to manage public land
By SHERRY DEVLIN of the Missoulian
Public lands can, should and will be used to sustain rural communities and to strengthen local economies, the Interior Department's assistant secretary for land and minerals management told foresters meeting in Missoula on Friday.
"Policymakers need to recognize the fundamental relationship between public land management and communities," said Rebecca Watson, an attorney who worked for a Helena law firm before being appointed assistant secretary by President Bush.
Libby is proof of the role public lands can - but sometimes don't - play in keeping a community strong, Watson told the annual meeting of the Montana and Inland Empire chapters of the Society of American Foresters. When Stimson Lumber Co. closed its mill in Libby this winter, 300 people lost their jobs and the town lost $14 million in annual payroll.
"Many of the millwrights, supervisors and electricians have already left the area for jobs in other places, but what happens to those who remain?" she asked. "Can a job at the local grocery store or in tourism meet their needs? Montanans know the answer is no."
Watson, whose duties include oversight of the Bureau of Land Management, said she went to Washington intent on making a difference by changing the "divisive, litigious dialogue" that was occurring in the West and by managing public lands in a way that supports sustainable, healthy rural communities.
She found part of the answer in the Healthy Forests Initiative unveiled by Bush last August, at the height of a wildfire season that saw 7.2 million acres of forest land burn - and thousands of people evacuated in Colorado, Arizona, Oregon and California.
"Heroic fighting of fires after they start is not enough," Watson told the foresters. "We need to look at the causes of our susceptibility to fire. One reason fires are burning hotter and faster is because of drought. Another reason is a century of forest practices that we now know were wrong."
The Healthy Forests Initiative seeks to improve the health of 190 million acres of federal forest and range lands by clearing the thickets of trees and undergrowth left after nearly a century of fire suppression on those lands, Watson said.
As proposed by Bush, the initiative would give federal land managers the tools they need to quicken the pace of forest thinning, she said - by eliminating the right of citizens to administratively appeal forest health projects, limiting the scope of environmental reports, insisting on early public participation, and hurrying the inter-agency consultations needed to satisfy the Endangered Species Act.
Citizens could still take their complaints about specific projects to court, but Congress would ask judges to give greater consideration to the long-term risks of harm to people, property and the environment if forests are not thinned.
And while environmental groups have assailed the proposed plan as "logging without laws" and have said the changes would remove citizens from the decisionmaking process, Watson said she believes the proposed changes are "modest."
"They are not logging without laws," she said. "They do not change the substantive requirements of any environmental laws. Neither do they eliminate public participation or citizens' rights to appeal or litigate. We believe these changes will help us restore the health of our forests and range lands, and reduce the risks to our communities in a more meaningful time frame."
And while the war on terrorism, homeland security and the impending war against Iraq are the Bush administration's priorities, the state of the nation's forests remains an important part of the agenda in Washington, Watson said. "The federal family is making progress in implementing the president's Healthy Forests Initiative."
But she said she needs the foresters' help, as they have the "expertise, experience and commitment to the sustainability of America's forests."
In fact, the professional group's annual meeting is focused on "the active management of federal lands for sustainable forest ecosystems in the northern Rockies." On Friday, that included presentations for and against commercial logging on public lands, then Watson's luncheon talk.
"This administration," she said, "believes that economic use is not only compatible with conservation, but conservation is dependent on a healthy, vibrant economy. When our economy is strong, our communities are strong and we care for the environment and can afford to invest in its conservation."
The SAF's meeting continues Saturday morning at the Holiday Inn Parkside with presentations by Lolo National Forest supervisor Debbie Austin and Jim Burchfield, director of the University of Montana's Bolle Center for People and Forests.
Interior official pitches President Bush's plan to manage public land
By SHERRY DEVLIN of the Missoulian
Public lands can, should and will be used to sustain rural communities and to strengthen local economies, the Interior Department's assistant secretary for land and minerals management told foresters meeting in Missoula on Friday.
"Policymakers need to recognize the fundamental relationship between public land management and communities," said Rebecca Watson, an attorney who worked for a Helena law firm before being appointed assistant secretary by President Bush.
Libby is proof of the role public lands can - but sometimes don't - play in keeping a community strong, Watson told the annual meeting of the Montana and Inland Empire chapters of the Society of American Foresters. When Stimson Lumber Co. closed its mill in Libby this winter, 300 people lost their jobs and the town lost $14 million in annual payroll.
"Many of the millwrights, supervisors and electricians have already left the area for jobs in other places, but what happens to those who remain?" she asked. "Can a job at the local grocery store or in tourism meet their needs? Montanans know the answer is no."
Watson, whose duties include oversight of the Bureau of Land Management, said she went to Washington intent on making a difference by changing the "divisive, litigious dialogue" that was occurring in the West and by managing public lands in a way that supports sustainable, healthy rural communities.
She found part of the answer in the Healthy Forests Initiative unveiled by Bush last August, at the height of a wildfire season that saw 7.2 million acres of forest land burn - and thousands of people evacuated in Colorado, Arizona, Oregon and California.
"Heroic fighting of fires after they start is not enough," Watson told the foresters. "We need to look at the causes of our susceptibility to fire. One reason fires are burning hotter and faster is because of drought. Another reason is a century of forest practices that we now know were wrong."
The Healthy Forests Initiative seeks to improve the health of 190 million acres of federal forest and range lands by clearing the thickets of trees and undergrowth left after nearly a century of fire suppression on those lands, Watson said.
As proposed by Bush, the initiative would give federal land managers the tools they need to quicken the pace of forest thinning, she said - by eliminating the right of citizens to administratively appeal forest health projects, limiting the scope of environmental reports, insisting on early public participation, and hurrying the inter-agency consultations needed to satisfy the Endangered Species Act.
Citizens could still take their complaints about specific projects to court, but Congress would ask judges to give greater consideration to the long-term risks of harm to people, property and the environment if forests are not thinned.
And while environmental groups have assailed the proposed plan as "logging without laws" and have said the changes would remove citizens from the decisionmaking process, Watson said she believes the proposed changes are "modest."
"They are not logging without laws," she said. "They do not change the substantive requirements of any environmental laws. Neither do they eliminate public participation or citizens' rights to appeal or litigate. We believe these changes will help us restore the health of our forests and range lands, and reduce the risks to our communities in a more meaningful time frame."
And while the war on terrorism, homeland security and the impending war against Iraq are the Bush administration's priorities, the state of the nation's forests remains an important part of the agenda in Washington, Watson said. "The federal family is making progress in implementing the president's Healthy Forests Initiative."
But she said she needs the foresters' help, as they have the "expertise, experience and commitment to the sustainability of America's forests."
In fact, the professional group's annual meeting is focused on "the active management of federal lands for sustainable forest ecosystems in the northern Rockies." On Friday, that included presentations for and against commercial logging on public lands, then Watson's luncheon talk.
"This administration," she said, "believes that economic use is not only compatible with conservation, but conservation is dependent on a healthy, vibrant economy. When our economy is strong, our communities are strong and we care for the environment and can afford to invest in its conservation."
The SAF's meeting continues Saturday morning at the Holiday Inn Parkside with presentations by Lolo National Forest supervisor Debbie Austin and Jim Burchfield, director of the University of Montana's Bolle Center for People and Forests.
