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COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES Washington, D.C. 20515
President William J. Clinton
Dear President Clinton:
We understand that your Administration is preparing to issue a new policy for roadless areas on the national forests and that this policy will override the decisions that have been made in national forest plans and numerous wilderness laws. In addition, it will undermine the public credibility and scientific integrity of ongoing decision-making efforts.
Forest planning and wilderness designations have involved extensive and intensive public involvement and (in the case of wilderness enactment) negotiation and legislative action by Congress. By contrast, the new roadless area policy which you will soon announce has been developed behind closed doors and with a deliberate attempt to exclude Congress and the public from the decision-making process. The ridiculously short public comment period you will propose after these decisions have been made will not pass a straight-face test for Congressional or public involvement.
Several Members of Congress have written you, Secretary Glickman and Chief Dombeck to express their concerns with the proposal as it was being developed. Their letters raised the serious concern that a broad-brush moratorium overriding the Forest Service’s land management plans will undermine and make meaningless the agency’s own procedures for decision-making, which were developed to comply with the National Forest Management Act ( NFMA ), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and many other environmental and procedural laws. After more than a month, no one in your Administration has seen fit to reply to any of the Members’ letters or include them in the decision-making process.
Now that a fair amount of detail about your initiative has been made available through press reports and editorials, your staff have requested the opportunity to brief Congress on the roadless area policy. We are disappointed, to say the least, by this cynical effort at the eleventh hour to give the appearance of involving Congress in this critical issue. Your lack of response to our earlier inquiries make clear your intent to alter Forest Service policy without any regard for the public involvement and environmental analysis procedures prescribed by NEPA and NFMA ; with total disregard to the wilderness laws; and with callous disrespect for the impacts of your decision upon the national forest resource and surrounding communities.
We hope that you and the Forest Service will reconsider this ill-advised policy. As you have long stated, forest management decisions must be made in compliance with the law of the "collaborative stewardship." Your new policy is not in compliance with the law, it does not provide for stewardship of the land; and it most certainly is not collaborative.
In your actions on this issue, we urge you to provide the Congressional and public involvement that is mandated by statute. We look forward to your reply before you finalize this policy.
cc: Dan Glickman , Secretary of Agriculture
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