Clinton's Forest Decree Needs
More Comment, Senators Insist

WASHINGTON —(AP)— The Clinton administration should delay by four months an effort to ban roads in more than 50 million acres of federal forests so the public has more time to comment on the plan, according to 33 senators.

A 60-day comment period that began in late October is not enough time to collect and review data and study the initiative, said a letter signed by Sens. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H.

Thirty other GOP senators — including Gordon Smith of Oregon and Slade Gorton of Washington state — signed the letter to Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman.

``This additional time would provide a critical window for the American people to assess the proposal and convey their thoughts,'' the senators said.

Glickman received the letter Wednesday but has not made a decision on the request, a spokeswoman for the agriculture secretary said.

Clinton in October signed an executive order calling for regulations to put the already roadless forest land off-limits to development.

An administrative rule-making process to carry out the order began in late October and will take about a year to complete. An initial 60-day comment period is scheduled to end Dec. 20.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there will be ample opportunity for the public to comment on the president's forest initiative.

``We oppose efforts, however, to derail these protections,'' the official said.

An environmental activist contends the senators' letter is a thinly-veiled effort to kill Clinton's plan.

A four-month delay in the initial comment period would not allow Clinton to complete the plan before he leaves office in January 2001, said Ken Rait, director of the Heritage Forests Campaign.

Rait contends that GOP lawmakers want Texas Gov. George Bush or some other GOP candidate to win the presidency and scuttle the unfinished plan.

But Mark Rey, a staffer for the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, rejected the notion that senators want to kill the plan by delaying it.

He said the 60-day comment period runs through the holidays and makes it difficult for people to take time to comment. Citizens in some cases were given only a few days notice of public meetings on the plan, Rey said.

Giving people more time to comment is ``a pretty reasonable request'' aimed at making sure the administration implements the plan correctly, he said.

Even without a four-month delay, Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck told agency administrators that other important agency work may be delayed as a result of implementing Clinton's plan.

``This task is big, it is important, and it is urgent,'' he said in an Oct. 28 memo to Forest Service administrators. ``We cannot afford to waste a single day.''

Glickman, whose department includes the Forest Service, on Nov. 12 announced 10 public hearings around the nation to gather public comments on the plan.

Remaining hearings are in Portland, Ore., and Atlanta on Tuesday, in Sacramento, Calif., on Wednesday and in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 9.

Whether delayed or railroaded through, Clinton's initiative is likely to fail, Republican U.S. Sen. Larry Craig says.

Craig, a member of the Senate GOP leadership, said the initiative was designed to help get Vice President Al Gore elected president.

The Forest Service already has too many programs to finish before taking up the initiative and Clinton only has a year remaining in office, he noted.

``The president won't get there,'' Craig said Friday during a taping of KTVB's ``Viewpoint'' program. ``If he really wanted to accomplish something on roadless lands, he should have introduced legislation in Congress.''

But Craig admitted neither he nor other Idaho politicians have been able to resolve the debate over how much roadless land should be protected as wilderness. Such a designation would stop all logging and motorized recreation there.

Idaho has about four million acres already protected as wilderness. The Forest Service plans Idaho hearings on the issue next month.

A legislative rider Craig authored would have banned grizzly bear reintroduction into north-central Idaho. He lost that battle in budget negotiations with the Clinton administration, but he won a commitment the bears would not be reintroduced in 2000.