House Resources Chairman Richard Pombo (R.-Calif.) and other conservative experts on the U.S. government's land management policies said last week that long-standing environmentalist policies contributed to the severity of last month's disastrous wildfires in Southern California. The fires, though still burning, have been contained. But Congress continues to negotiate over the Healthy Forests legislation (HR 1904) designed to prevent such severe fires in the future. Pombo pointed to a GAO study released October 29 that found that 66% of fuel reduction projects planned by the U.S. Forest Service for national forests in California were stalled by administrative appeals—mostly filed by...
