[GreenYes] Bush Administration and Timber Policy

["Peter Anderson" <anderson@recycleworlds.org>]

     fyi
 
Timber indus. optimistic about Bush
WASHINGTON (AP) - When George W. Bush promised throughout his campaign to let states play a larger role in land management decisions, the timber industry took note. Now that Bush is in office, industry officials want him to follow through. They are heartened by indications from Bush advisers that steps will be taken to increase timber harvests and turn over environmental controls to states. Since the late 1980s, the timber harvest on federal land has decreased about 75%, the result of Forest Service policy changes and various lawsuits. West said more than 200 mills have closed in the Northwest alone. Environmentalists, meanwhile, are gearing up to try to protect gains made under the Clinton administration They are worried by what they've seen from Bush so far, noting he attended a major fund-raiser with timber interests last spring in Portland, Ore., and pointing to people like Robert Nelson, a member of Bush's environmental advisory group - who favors abolishing the Forest Service - as evidence Bush is listening to extremists.
 
     
see also


     
     
  The Environment   
     
Court declines Endangered Act case
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to reopen the debate over the Endangered Species Act's impact on private landowners. The court, without comment, turned aside a case testing whether farmers may kill endangered red wolves that stray from a federal refuge. The case contained a stark ideological and constitutional question - how far does federal control extend - and a political twist as well. Theodore Olson, President Bush's constitutional lawyer in the Supreme Court case that decided the 2000 election, was the chief lawyer for North Carolina farmers angry over dead livestock. Olson also was named last week as the Bush administration's solicitor general, or lead Supreme Court lawyer. If Olson was confirmed by the Senate and the justices took the wildlife case, he would have had to quit as the lawyer in this case and then decide whether to argue precisely the opposite side.



back to top | *** For the full story, click here. 

_____________________________________________
Peter Anderson
RECYCLEWORLDS CONSULTING
4513 Vernon Blvd. Suite 15
Madison, WI 53705
(608) 231-1100/Fax (608) 233-0011
email: anderson@recycleworlds.org
web: www.recycleworlds.org