
Administration Limits Objections to Forest Thinning
by Guest Blogger, 1/21/2004
The Bush administration issued an interim final rule Jan. 9 that limits the public’s ability to challenge forest-thinning projects under the recently enacted Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which allows increased logging purportedly to reduce the danger of wildfire.
Under the rule:
- You can only launch an administrative appeal to stop a project if you submitted comments during the formal public comment period;
- Federal agencies are not allowed to file objections;
- Appeals must be brought within 30 days after the issuance of an environmental impact statement or assessment;
- A single Forest Service “reviewing officer” decides on an appeal, and can potentially do so without meeting with the objectors;
- No further administrative challenges are allowed if the reviewing officer rejects the appeal; and
- Exceptions for legal challenges should be “read together, narrowly construed and invoked only in rare instances such as where information becomes available only after the conclusion of the administrative process.”
