Craig Will Wait On Forest Reforms

Senator will introduce legislation next year LEWISTON U.S. Sen. Larry Craig will wait until next year to introduce legislation reforming national forest management laws.

The chairman of two Senate subcommittees overseeing the Forest Service said he was prepared to introduce such a bill before meeting with Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman two weeks ago.

“The secretary’s responses to my questions have convinced me that this would result in little more than the most cynical exercise in political posturing at the present time,” Craig said in a prepared statement.

He said Glickman told him he did not think they could have a thoughtful and substantive discussion detached from partisan wrangling and political recrimination if a bill was introduced before the election.

Craig said the bill would help the Forest Service be more sensitive to state and local needs and enable the agency to allow states to manage national forests with congressional consent. The Idaho Republican, who is facing a re-election challenge from former Boise forest products executive Walt Minnick, said he plans to circulate the plan immediately after the Nov. 5 election.

“If the current administration returns, the invitation to come forward with their own proposal still stands,” Craig said. “If not, I expect the successors may well be more aggressive and communicative in their desire to proceed and address these issues.”

Craig, who frequently draws fire from environmentalists, plans to call his bill the Public Lands Environmental Protection Act of 1997.

Meanwhile, Glickman has denied that the Clinton administration is pursuing or considering a timber harvest moratorium such as that advocated by the Sierra Club.

“To the contrary, we remain committed to the principles of multiple-use and sustained yield which have guided national forest management for the last half century,” he said in a letter dated Aug. 1 to Craig.