House Republicans seek to open up national forests to mining and logging
Weeks after an anti-government militia’s takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge, legislators are presenting bills to loosen federal authority over public land
Oliver Milman in New York
Wednesday 24 February 2016 15.50 EST
Congress is to consider two bills that would allow states to hand over vast tracts of federal land for mining, logging or other commercial activities ...
A bill put forward by Republican Don Young would allow any state to assume control of up to 2m acres of the national forest system to be “managed primarily for timber production” in order to address what Young claims is a decline in national logging rates.
A further bill, written by Republican Raúl Labrador, would allow state governors to assign up to 4m acres of land as “forest demonstration areas”, which would allow logging free from any federal water, air or endangered species restrictions ...
“The natural resources committee is pretty radicalized at this point,” said Bobby McEnaney, senior lands analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The fact that they would react to what’s happened in Oregon to advance an agenda to take land from the federal government is seriously tone deaf ...
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/24/house-republicans-open-national-forests-mining-logging-oregon-militia-malheur-wildlife-refuge
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