Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack last week laid out a comprehensive policy for the country's public and private forests that includes increasing protections for roadless areas, addressing climate change and preventing forest loss to development.
Giving his first major speech on the issue in Seattle, Vilsack outlined broad conservation goals that will guide the Obama administration's forest policies. He also made several specific announcements, including that the administration will write new regulations on managing the national forests and defend the controversial 2001 roadless rule in court -- or develop a new rule if needed.
On forest planning, Vilsack announced that the Forest Service would not appeal a federal court ruling that threw out Bush-era Forest Service regulations. Instead, the agency will develop new regulations that govern management plans for national forests, he said. A new planning process will be the venue to integrate all the administration's priorities, from wildlife conservation to economic concerns to collaboration with stakeholders, he said.
In June, a federal judge sided with environmentalists and threw out the Bush planning rule that determines how 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands develop individual forest plans, governing activities from timber harvests to recreation and protecting endangered plants and animals. Judge Claudia Wilken of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that the Forest Service had failed to analyze the effects of removing requirements guaranteeing viable wildlife populations (Greenwire, July 1).
Vilsack also emphasized that the Obama administration will seek to uphold the 2001 roadless rule in court. He praised an appeals court decision earlier this month reinstating the rule as a "very, very positive development."
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court's ruling to reinstate the Clinton-era roadless rule and permanently throw out the Bush administration's alternative policy (E&ENews PM, Aug. 5). The 2001 rule granted blanket protection to about 58 million acres of national forests nationwide but has been mired in legal battles ever since President Clinton put it in place just before leaving office.
Vilsack also said the Obama administration will seek to lift an injunction by U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer in Wyoming, who threw out the roadless rule last year in a separate court case. If it is not possible to protect roadless areas through the courts, the administration will initiate a new rulemaking process to do so, he announced.
The secretary also addressed the situation in Colorado, which along with Idaho was the only state to have petitioned for its own roadless plan under the Bush policy. While saying that Idaho's finalized rule is "strongly protective" of roadless areas, Vilsack noted that the governor of Colorado has extended the comment period on its pending rule. "He understands, as I do, that Colorado needs strong roadless protections," Vilsack said.
Conservation efforts
Conserving forests is a necessity, not a luxury, Vilsack said, yet the forests face more challenges than ever before. Forests face a "health crisis," he added, with climate change exacerbating the threats of fire, disease and insects.
Noting that 20 percent of forests in the United States are federal property, Vilsack said the agency must look across boundaries and develop landscape-scale plans to address the concerns. He said 40 million acres of private forest could be lost to development and fragmentation in the coming decades. The Agriculture Department has many farm and conservation programs that have more potential than the agency has realized to protect forests, he said.
"I'm here to tell you we have our own deforestation problem right here in the U.S. of A.," Vilsack said. "Just keeping forests as forests remains a significant challenge."
The Forest Service must protect and maintain all forests, including state, tribal and private lands, Vilsack said, requiring close collaboration with the Natural Resources Conservation Service. NRCS oversees more than $4 billion a year in payments or cost-share assistance for landowners to restore wetlands, install stream buffers, enrich wildlife habitat or manage waste.
Vilsack emphasized that he wants the Forest Service to adopt a collaborative approach to reduce the amount of lawsuits and "move beyond the timber wars" of the past.
Citing the debates over spotted owls and clear-cutting, Vilsack said the arguments over forest policy have been highly polarized for many years but that all parties must move toward a "shared vision" that begins with a complete commitment to restoration. That means managing forest lands first and foremost to protect water resources, while making forests far more resilient to climate change, he said.
But the Forest Service faces three main barriers to its restoration agenda, he added. The ballooning costs of wildfire fighting have caused the agency to shift funds from other programs, so the funding must be separated from forest management, he said. The history of distrust among environmentalists, agency officials and others in the forest community has led to litigation and countless appeals, he said. The Forest Service must build more trust with stakeholders, he added.
And there has been a loss of forest infrastructure such as timber mills, Vilsack said, which reduces the capacity for restoration work like thinning and reducing hazardous fuels. But the government and other stakeholders must help sustain traditional wood products and develop emerging new markets such as biomass, carbon mitigation and even water, by providing landowners with incentives to restore wetlands and watersheds.
Noting that he gave the speech in Seattle instead of a forest setting, Vilsack emphasized the role forests play in providing clean drinking water for all areas, including cities.
Reaction
Conservation groups praised the speech. Mike Anderson, a Seattle-based senior resource analyst for the Wilderness Society, said the plans would greatly improve the way forests are managed.
"It was a momentous occasion to see a secretary of Agriculture state that restoring forests will be the top priority for the Forest Service," Anderson said in a statement. "He recognized the connection between healthy forests and healthy communities. Investing in our forests today will pay countless dividends in the future. First and foremost, it will safeguard supplies of clean drinking water."
Several environmental groups specifically lauded the planning rule and roadless rule comments.
"The national forest planning rules are like the Constitution for our national forests, and the Bush administration tried to throw out the Bill of Rights," said Trent Orr of Earthjustice in a statement. "The American people deserve the highest protections possible for their national forests, which provide habitat for countless species, clean drinking water for millions of Americans, and invaluable recreation opportunities across the nation."
But House Natural Resources Committee ranking member Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) said Vilsack failed to address how the administration will confront "agenda-driven lawsuits that are killing our forests" and the rural communities whose livelihoods depend on timber-related jobs.
"Our economy can't afford a vision that is blind to timber jobs and timber communities, and our planet's environment will suffer if America's national forests are turned into nature preserves and we become more dependent on timber and wood products from third-world countries without our high environmental standards and practices," Hastings said in a statement.
