Three days before Christmas the U.S. Forest Service gave the timber and paper industry an early Christmas present, announcing a final rule that will drastically overhaul the U.S. Forest Service�s land management system. The plan will relax existing standards, allowing forest managers greater flexibility in managing national forests. Using a model commonly implemented in the business arena, forest managers will now implement an environmental management system which will allow them to set their own environmental goals in a continual cycle of planning, implementation and assessment, rather than creating long-term plans that are open for public review, as was previously the case. While implementing plans quickly and efficiently is a benefit to both industry and environmental advocates, the new regulation cuts out public participation in the process and eliminates protections for fish and wildlife. The environmental management system will replace the environmental impact assessments used by the forest industry for the past two decades. Under the new regulations, forest managers can produce environmental impact statements if they believe such statements are necessary, but managers are given discretion as to the extent to which they produce environmental impact analysis. Environmentalists believe that without the environmental impact assessments, forest managers will be able to implement forestry plans without paying heed to environmental protections. Eliminating the environmental review process also cuts out public participation in the planning process. Forest managers will now be able to easily approve logging, drilling or mining plans without having to assess the environmental impact or answer to the public. Further threatening fish and wildlife within the national forests, the new regulations do not specifically require forest managers to protect fish and wildlife populations from becoming threatened or endangered. Rather, managers must consider the best available science to make decisions that benefit the entire ecosystem. The regulation essentially jettisons any wildlife protection provisions from land management plans. The new regulation gives environmental protection and economic interests equal weight. Forest managers are to be held accountable under the new plan through an audit system. However, the regulation gives little guideline as to who these auditors will be. Auditors are just as likely to be industry representatives and as they are to be environmental scientists. Furthermore, true oversight of such a program would come with a heavy cost. The regulation impacts 155 national forests, covering 191 million acres. Environmental groups have already planned to challenge the regulation in court.