re NEPA Categorical Exclusions
 
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002576466_shutdowns22m.h
tml
Seattle Times  -- Saturday, October 22, 2005
Ruling lets public back into national forests
By The Associated Press
PORTLAND — The U.S. Forest Service said yesterday it will resume issuing
permits for mushroom picking, hunting outfitters, Christmas trees and
other small projects after a federal judge clarified his ruling in a
lawsuit over public participation in forest-management decisions.
"We are in the process of issuing permits again," said Rex Holloway,
spokesman for the Northwest regional office of the Forest Service.
Clarifying an earlier ruling, U.S. District Judge James Singleton Jr.
wrote Wednesday that the Forest Service needs to take public comments and
consider appeals on major projects, such as timber sales and new
off-highway vehicle trails — not on minor things such as permits for
hunting guides or gathering mushrooms.
"It was clear from his ruling that he wasn't intending for that to apply
to, for instance, personal-use permits for forest products and
outfitters," Holloway said.
The ruling stemmed from a 2003 lawsuit by Heartwood and other
environmental groups challenging the harvest of burned trees on the
Sequoia National Forest in California.
The harvest had been approved under what is called a categorical
exclusion, which does not allow for public comment or appeals. The case
was aimed at striking down rules the Bush administration adopted in 2003.
The Forest Service had suspended nearly 1,500 activities nationwide,
including cutting an 80-foot spruce in New Mexico to serve as the U.S.
Capitol Christmas tree, the transfer of an operating permit for a ski
area outside Los Angeles, and permits to pick mushrooms on national
forests in Oregon.
Environmentalists have characterized the shutdowns as a politically
inspired effort to create public anger to justify legislation to reduce
public participation in public-lands management.
Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth sent a letter Thursday to regional
foresters around the country directing them to resume issuing permits
that had been suspended in recent weeks, except for those expressly
mentioned in the judge's order as requiring public comment. Those
projects include timber sales, forest thinning, prescribed burns, oil and
gas exploration, and off-highway vehicle trails.
Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

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