Allow me to translate. This is a craven attempt by the Bush administration to sidestep the spotted owl imbroglio. Various figures are bandied about, but one thing is sure - at the present rate of harvest, there won't be enough mature trees left in 20 years to sustain a logging economy in the western continental United States. This ruse by Bush's proxy, the U.S. Forest Service, rejects science and the public good in favor of truckling to a narrowly based special interest group. Protection of national forests is as innately All-American as mom's apple pie.
Forests are our birthright.
If you fish or hunt, you understand the value of standing timber. Salmon and steelhead need mature timber to shade and cool their spawning redds and prevent streambed siltation. The Forest Service's proposal to change its administrative appeals process is retrograde, and it's swimming against both reason and the spirit of the times. In the name of economic growth, the U.S. Forest Service is proposing to stop allowing people to appeal timber-sale decisions and similar management actions to agency higher ups. That's going too far, even with the Forest Service's companion proposal to provide more public comment before final decisions are made.