New forest rules focus on 'holistic' approach

New regulations governing the country's 155 national forests are drawing mixed reviews. Predictably, environmental activists and logging interests have differing reactions to the rules.

"The new rule will improve the way we work with the public by making forest planning more open, understandable and timely," Sally Collins, the U.S. Forest Service associate chief, said in a prepared statement. "It will enable Forest Service experts to respond more rapidly to changing conditions, such as wildfires, and emerging threats, such as invasive species."

The regulations apply to all national forests plus the country's 20 national grasslands.

Heidi Valetkevitch, spokeswoman in the Forest Service's Washington, D.C., headquarters, told the Deseret Morning News that the biggest change in the new rules is the Environmental Management System. EMS is a tool used by other groups and agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, she added.

EMS will help the Forest Service with review and oversight, she said. It will examine the development of a plan by a forest, the implementation of the plan and some monitoring, she said.

"The key feature is this requirement for an independent audit of the Forest Service's work," Valetkevitch said.

Experts will audit the agency work. These can be from private companies, other agencies, specialists in the academic world or Forest Service people.

"The new rule directs forest managers to use the best science available to protect species at a landscape level," she said. The emphasis is to preserve ecosystems as a whole.

The present rule requires attention on a species level, she said, while the new approach will be "much more holistic," examining the forest "from a landscape level."

Public involvement will increase in monitoring plans, she said, and the public will remain just as involved in formulating forest plans.

The agency will pay attention to quality of life and the impact of people who live in the area, she said. "One of the cornerstones of the final plan is sustainability," Valetkevitch added.

"We're looking at the forest in which the community resides and seeing what sustains the community. . . ." The idea is to balance social and ecological components, she added.