We wondered whether or not it was possible, since it had never been done, to change a Forest Service planning process in midstream. I had to do some fast talking within our institution to convince people we weren't crazy. Other foundations also pitched in. The grants ranged widely in size. Membership dues just don't cut it in terms of the millions and millions of dollars that are spent on these issues.
Conservationists counter that the industry spends plenty to lobby for favorable federal policies.
They don't mind if foundations support environmental groups as long as they don't accomplish great change. What is unusual here was this unprecedented, historical scale of great change. The fight over roadless forests is likely to continue even as the ink dries on the Forest Service's final rule. In November, four Republican lawmakers said the 1996 Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Act gives Congress 60 legislative working days to review a rule and block it if lawmakers choose. Crandall, of the House Forests and Forest Health Subcommittee, said the new Congress probably would ask its watchdog General Accounting Office to do a comprehensive analysis of the roadless rule and other newly adopted Forest Service policies.