Bush Signs Law Meant to Thin Forests, Stop Fires
Date: 05-Dec-03
Country: USA
Author: Christopher Doering
Bush, joined by two members of his Cabinet, touted the legislation as a crucial step to protect forests, homes and human lives that have been endangered by "uncontrollable growth left by years of neglect" on U.S. lands.
Some Democrats and environmental groups said the bill promoted logging at the expense of environmental protection and failed to direct enough money to forest-thinning projects near homes.
"We are seeing the tragic consequences brought on by years of unwise forest policy," Bush said before signing the bill at the U.S. Agriculture Department. This legislation "takes a major step forward in protecting America's forests."
After forest fires burned much of the Western United States last year, Bush unveiled his so-called "healthy forest" proposal to cut procedural delays at federal agencies and to develop new ways to reduce the threat of wildfires on 10 million acres of fire-prone forest.
The bipartisan-crafted bill incorporating those ideas, passed by Congress in November, envisages $760 million being spent annually in an attempt to prevent wildfires.
HUGE FIRE THREAT
The U.S. Forest Service, a division of the USDA, estimated a total of 190 million acres of forest land in the United States is susceptible to fires.
Efforts to pass a forest-thinning bill took on a greater sense of urgency in late October when fires scorched more than 750,000 acres in Southern California, killing nearly two dozen people and destroying 3,400 homes.
In the last two years, more than 11 million acres of U.S. land was burned by wildfires.
"This law will not prevent every fire," Bush said, but "we'll help save lives and property, and we'll help protect our forests from sudden and needless destruction."
