[harpo11]

"We thought these folks were made of sterner principles. But it looks like they are more than willing to park those beliefs when there's an election to win."

Sadly, very willing, and so true.

[The Raven]

Letter to the editor:

Your July 25 editorial "Chainsaw Tom" reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of my forest management amendment.

First, the amendment implements an agreement negotiated by local stakeholders, including the timber industry and environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society. This agreement not only allows thinning on federal land, it also protects the roadless character of the area and creates 3,600 acres of new wilderness.

Second, my amendment is not "similar" to legislation proposed by Congressman Thune. His proposal did not include the linchpin of my amendment -- a locally negotiated consensus agreement on thinning to prevent forest fires. It simply directed the Forest Service to unilaterally initiate thinning in the Black Hills National Forest, which would generate additional litigation and bring us no closer to our goal of reducing the local fire threat. Moreover, it did not add additional wilderness to the national forest or protect the environmental integrity of the thinned areas, which was essential to securing environmental community support for thinning.

No one should misinterpret the reach of this forest management agreement. It is grounded in the understanding that no special legal protection should be afforded any timber cutting plan that is not endorsed by all local stakeholders and does not preserve the environmental integrity of the affected area.

Litigation and appeals in the Black Hills, like elsewhere in the nation, reflect the lack of trust that exists among all users of the national forests and the Forest Service, and a lack of consensus regarding the goals of national forest management. After years of battling in South Dakota over these issues, the various interested parties worked through their differences and achieved both consensus and trust on a discrete set of forest management issues. The resulting agreement, implemented through my amendment, has cleared the way for thinning to begin and for the expansion of a local wilderness area in my state.

Tom Daschle
Majority Leader
United States Senate