posted 04-30- 10:45 PM            

Thinning Timber

Washington, DC -

Republicans on a key House committee pushed through a forest thinning bill Wednesday that they said would help avoid a repeat of last year's disastrous wildfires. Democrats called the bill a giveaway to the timber industry.

The House Resources Committee approved the bill, 32-17. Four Democrats joined all 28 panel Republicans in supporting the measure, which now heads to the House Agriculture Committee.

Republicans said the plan would provide a balanced approach to protect millions of acres of national forests, but Democrats complained it would severely limit public participation and allow the Bush administration to authorize clear cuts of up to 1,000 acres in the name of controlling insects.

"The exploding threat of large-scale catastrophic wildfires and massive insect and disease epidemics combine to pose the single largest challenge facing federal land and resources managers today," said Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., the bill's chief sponsor.

The bill calls for aggressive logging in up to 20 million acres of federal land at high risk of fire. It also would streamline public appeals to allow forest projects to be completed within months rather than years, and give the secretaries of Agriculture and Interior authority to approve timber harvests as big as 1,000 acres without environmental review while they develop programs to control insect infestation.

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., a co-sponsor, said the bill would "ensure that hazardous fuel reduction projects aren't endlessly appealed, but will also guarantee that citizens have the opportunity to appeal government decisions."

But Democrats said a provision requiring that legal challenges to logging projects be filed within 15 days could result in more lawsuits, since environmentalists and other groups would have no other recourse to object to a project.

"You're forcing people to go to court," Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M, told Republicans.

Democrats also protested the timing of the vote, noting that the measure was only introduced on Friday. No public hearing was held before the panel's action.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., accused committee Republicans of "short-circuiting" the legislative process and said holding a vote so soon was an injustice to those concerned about the forest.

"We've talked and debated and pontificated enough on this issue," McInnis shot back. "There has been more than enough hand-wringing and foot stomping. Fires burn while we sit here in hearings."

McInnis and other Republicans said immediate action is need to avoid a repeat of last year's fire season, when thick, overgrown forests combined with an extended drought to scorch more than 7 million acres.

Despite the fires, wildfire legislation failed in the House and Senate last year amid bitter partisan disputes that were again in evidence Wednesday.

The Bush administration and other Republicans are pushing to speed up logging on federal lands, saying the current system is bogged down by appeals and other delays. Environmentalists and some Democrats say Republicans are using the threat of fire to boost commercial logging.

In a statement after the vote, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Interior Secretary Gale Norton said the bill would help carry out President Bush's Healthy Forests Initiative.

"This bipartisan legislation will further our ongoing efforts with states, Indian tribes and local communities to repair forests and rangelands threatened with catastrophic fire or imperiled by disease and insect infestations," Norton and Veneman said.

A Democratic alternative offered by Miller was narrowly defeated on a party-line vote. The amendment would have authorized nearly $4 billion over five years to log forests and clear underbrush within a half-mile of communities.

California Democrats Cal Dooley, Dennis Cardoza and Joe Baca, as well as Rep. Brad Carson, D-Okla., voted in favor of the Republican bill.