One of the major problems with the Bush administration's HFI is turning 
control of the national forests over to the governors. In the case below, the 
governor has been overruled by Washington in his attempt to prevent more forest 
destruction. This is an exellent example of why national forests and other 
federal land must remain under federal control. Jerry Neff





EDITORIAL

Santa Fe New Mexican


8/7/2004


Drive to Duke City, rally for our forests



For those properly fearful of President Bush’s attempt to lift his

predecessor’s ban on new roads into the wilds for tree-cutting ,

oil-drilling and other assaults on Ma Nature, a trip down to Albuquerque

today might bring a bit of balm for the soul.


From 2 to 4 p.m. at the Sheraton Uptown, Louisiana and Menaul, several of

our region’s leading environmental groups are expected to make it clear

what the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management have in mind with

their attempt to roll back Bill Clinton’s order sparing the deep woods and

other isolated areas from bulldozers, seismographic “thumper” trucks and

whatever else it might take to exploit what little unspoiled land is left.


Forest officials say 75 percent of New Mexico’s 1.5 million acres of

roadless woods already are protected by one plan or another. Still, gouging

timber roads into 375,000 acres could be catastrophic — and once those

lands are, uh, exploited, we can already hear the hue and cry for the

revision of individual forest plans.


It was the precarious state of our nation’s forests, grasslands, even

deserts, that prompted President Clinton to act on behalf of the boonies.

And as some enviros note, he wasn’t taking half-measures , or three-quarter

measures, as would be the case in our state; it was the remaining roadless

lands.


Bush’s bush-and-tree agencies have tried to softpedal their approach,

saying that if states object to opening those lands, their governors can

petition to protect them.


But as Joanna Prukop, our state’s Secretary of Energy, Minerals and Natural

Resources, notes, Gov. Bill Richardson is seeking a say in natural-gas

drilling on Otero Mesa — and the feds have rejected his petitions.


Might the same thing happen when a Bush-backing company casts its eye over

a certain stretch of forest ?


Forcing the states to play guessing-games as to who might want to cut what

forest, or scramble to stop construction already started, is poor public

policy — as sharper folks than we will be articulating this afternoon.

Among the invited speakers are the legendary Dave Foreman and Jim Baca,

whose conservation work at grass-roots and official levels have lifted the

spirits of arm-chair enviros and converted many into activists.


That’s what we hope will happen this afternoon: Concerned citizens will

learn that their voices count; that their presence and participation on

behalf of this piece of our battered planet can make a difference. Rep. Tom

Udall and Sen. Jeff Bingaman, as well as Gov. Richardson, will have

representatives on hand, and former Carlsbad Caverns superintendent Rick

Smith will lend his expertise. Most of all, those folks from officialdom,

along with Arturo Sandoval of Voces, can show how citizen action works.


Who knows? Your attendance at this mercifully brief gathering could be the

difference between a torn-up stretch of woods and a peaceful place for

years to come.

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