lands could reopen to logging in new Bush plan

[montana500]

www.wilderness-sportsman.com


"Lands could reopen to logging
A deal between the Bush administration and the timber industry could lift protections for millions of Oregon acres
Sunday, November 06, 2005

A deal between the Bush administration and timber industry probably will restart chain saws across millions of acres of Western Oregon in the next few years, including reserves set aside for the northern spotted owl and other wildlife.

It will mark perhaps the single largest and most striking shift in public land management in the Northwest since the Clinton administration's 1994 Northwest Forest Plan created those reserves in the first place.

Conservationists fear it will begin the permanent unraveling of those reserves, a key piece of the strategy to sustain the spotted owl, marbled murrelet and salmon. "