[MCN] House Logging Bill Guts Federal Environmental Laws, Literally Privatizes Public Lands, Creates Logging Free-for-All

[Matthew Koehler]

>From the Western Environmental Law Center....

*House Logging Bill Guts Federal Environmental Laws, Literally Privatizes
Public Lands, Creates Logging Free-for-All *

http://www.westernlaw.org/article/house-logging-bill-hr-2936-guts-federal-environmental-laws-literally-privatizes-public-lands

Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives begins its consideration of HR
2936, known as the Westerman Bill after its author, Rep. Bruce Westerman
(R-AR). The bill contains a cornucopia of loopholes, exemptions and
categorical exclusions for environmental, judicial, and public review; and,
incredibly, gives away public lands to adjacent private landowners.

The bill would be disastrous for forest health, requiring unsustainable
logging, transferring endangered species authority away from the expert
consulting agencies, and eliminating environmental analysis for a huge
number of logging projects. The legislation also appears to revoke
President Obama’s recent expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National
Monument, the only National Monument in the country designated specifically
to protect native biodiversity.

"The Westerman Bill is breathtaking in how brazenly it seeks to destroy
responsible science-based forest management in this country," said Susan
Jane Brown of the Western Environmental Law Center. “This legislation is a
wish list from the timber industry, and would create more controversy and
legal uncertainty than the infamous 1995 Salvage Rider, which served to
undermine public trust in the credibility of the federal land management
agencies,” Brown explained. “Moreover, the bill is an underhanded attempt
to repeal the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, which is overwhelmingly
supported by the public. The timber industry that supports this legislation
should be ashamed.”

HR 2936 contains the following provisions:

·       Requires the Bureau of Land Management to offer for sale at least
500 million board feet of timber from the Oregon and California lands in
southern Oregon, even when the maximum sustainable yield is much lower

·       Gives private landowners with easements over public land full
ownership of that land

·       Allows logging projects under 10,000 acres to avoid detailed
environmental analysis

·       Allows salvage logging projects under 10,000 acres without any
analysis

·       Allows unstudied logging, grazing, livestock infrastructure
construction, and herbicide application under the guise of wildfire risk
mitigation for areas under 10,000 acres

·       Caps Endangered Species Act consultation for environmental issues
arbitrarily at 90 days

·       Grants the Forest Service unilateral authority to forgo Endangered
Species Act consultation

·       Severely limits public involvement timelines for large-scale
projects on public lands

·       Prohibits restraining orders, preliminary injunctions, and
injunctions pending appeal, severely limiting public oversight via the
courts

·       Erodes public oversight by extending logging projects' maximum
duration from 10 to 20 years

·       Diverts money from stewardship contracts and collaborative forest
restoration to the Forest Service to plan additional timber sales

·       Prevents consultation for endangered species after a land
management plan has been changed

·       Prohibits awarding of attorney fees when courts find the government
broke the law

·       Removes enforceability of forest plans making them strictly advisory

·       Redirects authority to determine harm to endangered species from
the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to land
management agencies

·       Eliminates application of Survey and Manage, one of the key old
growth forest protections of the Northwest Forest Plan

·       Requires that all Oregon and California Lands be managed according
to the Oregon and California Lands Act of 1937, which may supersede
subsequent designation as National Monument lands pursuant to the
Antiquities Act of 1906

Contact:

Susan Jane Brown, 503-914-1323, brown at westernlaw.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://bigskynet.org/pipermail/missoula-community-news_bigskynet.org/attachments/20170622/62c48a3f/attachment-0002.html>