The Bush administration sent a legislative proposal to Congress on Sept. 5 that would allow increased commercial logging of old-growth trees in national forests, purportedly to reduce runaway forest fires that have plagued the West in recent years, even though such trees are not the source of the problem. Misleadingly labeled the “Healthy Forests Initiative,” the plan seeks to eliminate legal tools to challenge logging initiatives -- waiving provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act and exempting most forest management projects from judicial review -- and would also exempt timber cutting from public notice and comment. Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) is expected to offer portions of the Bush proposal to the Dept. of Interior spending bill, according to this Earthjustice action alert. The catastrophic fires of recent years are the result of a buildup of small trees and underbrush, “due to a variety of Forest Service policies, including the practice of extinguishing low-intensity fires” while allowing timber companies to harvest “the larger, most fire-resistant trees,” according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. The Bush plan sets forth a “goods-for-services” arrangement in which the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management could permit timber companies to cut large trees -- which are not the problem -- in exchange for removing the commercially worthless small trees and underbrush. To oversee the “Healthy Forests Initiative,” Interior Secretary Gale Norton has appointed libertarian Allan Fitzsimmons, who has questioned the existence of ecosystems, calling them a “mental construct,” the protection of which should not shape federal policy. Click here for more detail on Fitzsimmons.