New GAO Report Shows that 95% of Forest Service Fuel Reduction Projects Get Green Light within Standard 90 day Review Period

GAO report is just latest in long line of reports showing Forest Service public appeals process isn't interfering with home protection efforts or forest management as Bush Administration claims.

For More Information:
Matthew Koehler, Native Forest Network: (406) 542-7343
Mike Petersen, The Lands Council: (509) 838-4912

MISSOULA, MONTANA - A General Accounting Office (GAO) report, released to Congress today, shows that 95% of the 762 Forest Service fuels reduction projects it analyzed were ready for implementation within the standard 90 day review period.

The latest GAO report is consistent with findings from a 2001 GAO report and an April 2003 report from researchers at Northern Arizona University. All three of these independent reports seriously contradict Bush Administration's claims of "analysis paralysis."

"This latest GAO report shows without a doubt that efforts to protect homes and communities from wildfire are not being hampered by the public appeals process," stated Matthew Koehler with the Montana-based Native Forest Network. "In truth, it's Congressman McInnis and the Bush administration who are hampering home protection efforts with their radical plans to spend scarce resources increasing logging in America's national forests."

Mike Petersen, executive director of The Lands Council, a Spokane, Washington conservation group that has helped hundreds of rural homeowners craft individual home protection plans, said, "This new GAO report is just latest in long line of independent reports showing that the public appeals process isn't interfering with home protection efforts or the management of our national forests. Let's only hope that the public and Congress begins to see right through the false claims of 'analysis paralysis' coming from anti-environmental members of Congress and Bush Administration officials."

Congressman McInnis' (R-CO) "Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003" is before the House Judiciary Committee today and is expected to be voted on by the full house next week. Like the Bush Administration's "Healthy Forests Initiative," McInnis' bill falsely claims "analysis paralysis" in an effort to dramatically limit citizen participation and undermine key environmental laws in an effort to increase logging in America's national forests.

The McInnis bill also does not include any specific measures to protect rural homeowners from wildfire. The Forest Service's own research shows that the protection of a home depends entirely on treatment of the Home Ignition Zone — the home itself and the area within 200 feet of the home.

BACKGROUND:

The General Accounting Office (GAO) reviewed 762 Forest Service fuel reduction projects. Of these projects:

• 457 were categorical exclusions (CEs), meaning they were not open to appeals, but were still open to litigation.
  
  
• Of the 305 projects open to appeal, only 180 were appealed.
  
  
• However, of the 180 appealed projects, 79% or (142 projects) were processed within the standard 90 day review period.

A SIMPLE MATH EXERCISE:

Take the 457 CE projects not appealable and therefore able to be implemented immediately, add to that the 125 projects that were open to appeals (but not appealed), and finally add the 142 projects that were processed by the Forest Service within the standard 90 day review period. The total is 724 projects. Divide 724 by total number of reviewed projects (762) and you come up with 95%.

CONCLUSION:

95% of the 762 Forest Service fuels reduction projects analyzed by GAO were ready for implementation within the standard 90 day review period. The GAO report also found that only 23 of the 762 projects (3%) were litigated.

Click here to view a copy of the GAO report, “Forest Service: Information on Decisions Involving Fuels Reduction Activities”