By Eric Pianin and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 9, 2002; Page A29

President Bush's proposal to speed up selective logging in national forests
to prevent wildfires has divided Democratic lawmakers and alienated some of
them from their longtime environmental base.

With western voters clamoring for government action to avert a repeat of
this summer's forest devastation, Democrats including Reps. George Miller
(Calif.) and Peter A. DeFazio (Ore.) and Sens. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and
Ron Wyden (Ore.) have sought to negotiate compromise legislation that would
placate the administration and Republican leaders.

Republicans want to speed up forest fire suppression programs by
circumventing key environmental laws and judicial review of some contested
logging projects. But Democrats are finding it nearly impossible to forge an
agreement without infuriating environmental groups that distrust the
president's policies.

Yesterday, leading environmental groups, including the Natural Resources
Defense Council, Friends of the Earth, the Wilderness Society, the National
Environmental Trust and the American Lands Alliance, denounced Miller and
DeFazio for trying to work out a deal with Rep. Scott McInnis (R-Colo.), the
GOP point man on forest management issues.

"We are shocked and disappointed that Representative Miller and
Representative DeFazio would support legislation that steamrolls
environmental safeguards for forests," said Brian Vincent, California
organizer for the American Lands Alliance. "Under this bill, the timber
industry gets to log the national forests under the guise of fire
prevention, while the public is supposed to stand silently by and watch."

Miller, who boasts one of the strongest environmental voting records of any
Democrat in Congress, announced last Wednesday that he and McInnis had
reached an agreement on a new compromise forest policy proposal.
That agreement would allow the Forest Service to conduct large-scale logging
projects without considering alternatives less harmful to the environment.
It also would greatly speed up administrative and judicial appeals, and
broadly define the high-risk areas exempt from current restrictions to
include residential communities and municipal watersheds and more remote
areas of federal lands.

Yet the deal began unraveling almost immediately, and yesterday Miller and
DeFazio removed their names from the proposal before the House Resources
Committee approved it, 23 to 14, largely along party lines. Four Democrats
voted with Republicans in favor of the plan.

McInnis, the chairman of the forest health subcommittee, accused
environmental groups of undermining the agreement. He said although
lawmakers negotiated "in good faith" inside the Capitol, "outside, the lobby
effort by the national Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society went into full
gear."

Miller insisted he was not swayed by the outside criticism and vowed to
continue negotiating with McInnis in hopes of striking a deal they can offer
on the House floor before Congress adjourns.
"We're very close to something we can defend against all comers," he said.
But the Democrats are torn over the forest fire management issue, and Miller
faces stiff resistance from influential fellow Democrats, including Rep.
Nick J. Rahall II (W.Va.), the ranking member of the Resources Committee;
Rep. Jay Inslee (Wash.); and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), the ranking
member of the Judiciary Committee.

Rahall said there are "legitimate concerns" that the forest fire management
legislation could result in a long-term diminution of key environmental
safeguards, while Conyers warned of a possible erosion of the power of the
courts to review Forest Service actions.
Rep. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) said he was particularly disturbed by what he called
"very unrealistic and absurd deadlines" imposed on court challenges to
thinning projects that potentially would force the courts to put the cases
ahead of other more pressing business.

In the Senate, Democrats have blocked efforts by Sens. Larry E. Craig
(R-Idaho) and Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) to attach a version of the
president's proposal to the fiscal 2003 Interior Department spending bill,
while Republicans have opposed Democratic alternatives.

Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, said that both
parties are struggling to break the impasse to gain political cover heading
into the November elections. Already, the issue has surfaced in a couple of
House races, including the contest to replace retiring Rep. Joe Skeen
(R-N.M.). Former state representative Steve Pearce (R) and his Democratic
rival, state Sen. John Arthur Smith, are trying to outdo each other in
claiming support for initiatives to thin forests.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For SC email list T-and-C, send: GET TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS.CURRENT
to [log in to unmask]