New Rules Protect U.S. Forest Ecosystems

A new federal rule announced Thursday could limit logging, skiing or hiking in national forests if forest managers believe those activities might permanently harm the ecosystem.

The policy change requires that managers overseeing 192 million acres of 155 forests put ecosystem health above all other concerns.

“We cannot do things that could put resources at risk,” said Jim Lyons, the Agriculture Department undersecretary who oversees the Forest Service. “Ecological sustainability is the foundation upon which future management decisions will be made.”

The Forest Service previously required that its managers, when developing a forest management plan, give equal weight to ecosystem health and other forest priorities, such as logging and public access.

Environmentalists praised the rule while loggers and others worried it would unfairly limit use of national forests.

Adena Cook, public lands director for the Blue-Ribbon Coalition, a recreation industry group in Pocatello, Idaho, raised the possibility of a legal challenge.

“Ecosystem sustainability--those buzzwords give us a great deal of concern,” Cook said.

The rule change is the first in 18 years in how the Forest Service implements the National Forest Management Act, which governs activities in forests.

Plans for more than two-thirds of the forests are due to be revised in the next three years, so updating the broader rule has been an agency priority.

The rule requires forest managers to consult with citizens and scientists in writing forest management plans.