http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sierra21nov21,1,3227383.story?coll=la-headlines-californiaCriticism Delays U.S. Adoption of Sierra Forest Protection Plan
The proposal's stepped-up logging is not scientifically justified, scientists contend. The Forest Service pushes a decision back until January.
By Bettina Boxall
Times Staff Writer
November 21, 2003
Wide-ranging criticism of a proposal to roll back wildlife and forest protections in the Sierra Nevada has caused the U.S. Forest Service to delay adoption of the changes, which would alter an environmental management plan for the state's most prominent mountain range.
A number of experts, including Forest Service scientists, have faulted the proposal on a variety of counts, saying that the agency has failed to provide a sound scientific justification to weaken the protections.
In response, the Forest Service has postponed a final decision on the revisions — originally due this fall — until January.
"We're listening to everything people are telling us, and one of them is we need to do a better job of documenting the rationale for the decision," said Matt Mathes, the Forest Service's spokesman in California. "All this is information Regional Forester Jack Blackwell actively asked for and wants. He doesn't really consider any of this good news or bad news. It's just information he needs to make a decision."
In detailed and sometimes sharp comments submitted to the Forest Service in recent months, several scientists warned that Blackwell's call for stepped-up logging could harm declining wildlife species, possibly pushing them onto the endangered species list. They disputed Forest Service claims that the proposed rollbacks were justified by "new information" on Sierra ecosystems and wildlife. And they raised questions about the plan's fire-reduction strategy.
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