Transfer the Land Between the Lakes forest, a valued 170,000 acre hardwood forest in Kentucky, to the Forest Service and open it up to logging. This rider waives compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act and sets up a perverse funding mechanism that funds the Land Between the Lakes Forest with money from logging and mining. Undermine the Wilderness Act by shifting the emphasis in managing wilderness areas from solitude to recreational use. In other words, this provision takes roads and trails money and puts it toward timber sales. Push back four years, from 2001 to 2005, the phase-out date of methyl bromide, a major culprit in the depletion of the ozone layer.
Current standards reflect neither improvements in technology nor the types of vehicles on the road.
The public will not be given an opportunity to comment on these analyses. U.S. PIRG commended White House negotiators for stripping some anti-environmental riders, including several which would have restricted salmon recovery plans on the Columbia and Snake Rivers, waived endangered species protections, and increased logging in certain national forests. The PIRGs are non-profit, nonpartisan consumer and environmental watchdog groups active across the country. All rights Reserved.