Forest Service had to revise after court ordered environment be weighed

WASHINGTON - In its ongoing effort to boost commercial logging, the Bush administration on Thursday proposed giving managers of the nation's 155 federal forests greater discretion in letting timber companies cut down more trees on the federally controlled land.

The new planning rule is the latest response by the Forest Service to court rulings that have rejected previous policies as not doing enough to protect wildlife and the environment. Officials said the new rule would ensure public involvement in the nation's 193 million acres of national forests.

But environmentalists said the Bush administration was again trying to strip important protections for wildlife and clean water for the benefit of the timber industry.

"In general I would say they have moved up from an F for the 2005 regulations to a D-minus for the 2008 rule," said Marc Fink, a lawyer for Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group that has challenged the planning rule. "They have started to move slightly in the right direction, but are far from ensuring the protection necessary for the fish and wildlife that depend on our national forests."

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