Judge Cuts Down Bush Forest Rules

(AP)  A federal judge has tossed out new Bush administration rules that gave national forest managers more discretion to approve logging and other commercial projects without lengthy environmental reviews.

U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled Friday that the government failed to adequately consider the effects the rules would have on the environment and neglected to properly gather public comment on the issue.

Hamilton said in her written decision that the government could not institute the new rules until proper environmental reviews were conducted, but she declined to specify how the nation's 155 national forests should be managed until then.

The ruling overturns a key administration environmental rule that governs all 192 million acres of national forests and stops plans such as logging and mining in the parks.

"I think people who love wildlife and care for our public forest should be elated by this decision," said Peter Frost, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center, one of 15 environmental groups that brought a pair of lawsuits challenging the new rules.

Hamilton issued a single ruling for both cases.

Frost said that if Hamilton upheld the new rules, "it would have likely meant the loss of species." Frost said the new rules could have made it much easier for new projects such as logging, mining, livestock grazing and road building.

U.S. Forest Service spokesman Joe Walsh said the government was reviewing the decision and noted it differs from rulings on similar cases in two other federal courts, including the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

Department of Justice spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson said government lawyers are reviewing the decision and have not decided whether to appeal.

When government officials announced in December 2004 the first new rules since the 1970s, they said changes would allow forest managers to respond more quickly to wildfires and other threats such as invasive species.

Forest managers have complained that without the new rules they must conduct studies that can take up to seven years to complete. The new rules would have allowed for forest plan revisions to be completed in two years to three years, officials said.

[kiddo88]

Dowjones20k, my uncle is a DNR wildfire fighter for the Superior National Forest, and since you seem to be so concerned about wildfire fighters being hindered in their ability to take preventative measures perhaps you should consider this--Bush was going to allow commercial logging. Loggers dont go after diseased wood, they fell mature trees...the healthy, life giving, still standing trees. Logging doesnt clear deadfall, and in fact the great wildfires of 1918 (google hinckley, cloquet wildfire) that killed my great grandparents were caused by logging. The deadfall created by logging combined with the record drought would only prime the ground with tinder. Poof! there goes your precious wilderness you insist on living in.

[stick130]

GREAT! Someone needs to force the Idiot President that he can't destroy Nature. He's screwed up everything he has been involved with since being born. I salute the judge that put a stop to Bush's ignorance.

[dowjones20k]

Should anyone be surprised that a judge from San Francisco makes up her own ruling?

Having previously lived on the west coast for a decade, every time I see a fire, I think of how many bug eaten, disease ridden trees are left to go up in flames.

Bring in the goats and chainsaws !!

I rekon many so called environmentalists would rather see an entire forest burn, than have some type of control over the deadwood and brush.

And with the dry season they have had this year, we shall just wait and see how they fair? The Hollywood sign may not be the only landmark that is threatened.

[whatithink-2009]

When will Jethro in the trailer park realize that Bush and Co DO NOT CARE ABOUT HIM?

[montraville]

Teddy Roosevelt is smiling.

[feelfree1]

lwilli201,

You wrote about the forest, and now you are asking about a tree.

Do you know the difference?

[lwilli201]

feelfree1

Show me a million year old tree.

[zootallures2]

neoconRcrazy, You have to face reality. If a Palestinian killed a 13 year old Israeli, he wouldn't even go to court, he'd be a hereo.

Israel has recently had to release Palestinian prisoners who have done just that.

Israel is a US puppet government. "A Clean Break" says Israel isn't western enough. The Priminister wears a suit, has no beard, no dread locks, and rarely wears a hat. Jews follow zionism because the aternative is genocide.
Women wear head scarfs and men have full beards in all monotheist religions. Other wise, they are fakes. Just look at Jesus and Mary.

[zootallures2]

Isn't it easier, safer, and more just, to use the resources of your own country than having to send the military to steal others? Having the other come back for revenge?

I'm with Bush on this one. Perhaps it should be added to Patriot Act 3?

[fairandbal]

This Judge is obviously legislating from the bench and needs to be fired.

G.W. Bush.