Forest Service Seeks Removal of Safeguards
The Forest Service is moving to change a Clinton-era policy designed to protect small, undeveloped portions of national forests.
Agency spokeswoman Heidi Valetkevitch said in Washington that the interim directives remove redundancies in agency guidelines and provide protections to pristine forest areas. But environmentalists contended the changes will open up an uncounted number of acres to logging and road-building.
The directives alter a policy that required each national forest to decide how many miles of roads it needs.
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