You can help protect New England's National Forests.

• Position: Brief Article

The Bush administration has consistently adopted policies detrimental to the 192 million acres of U.S. National Forests. In December 2003, President Bush signed into law the Healthy Forests Restoration Act. Deceptively named, the legislation did more to promote timber industry interests than to prevent future forest fires.

A year later, the administration issued new forest management guidelines that weakened environmental safeguards and restricted public participation in land-use decision-making. In May 2005, President Bush repealed the Clinton administration's Roadless Area Conservation Rule, an enormously popular rule that had placed nearly 60 million acres of National Forests off-limits to road-building and logging. CLF opposes the Bush administration's policies that threaten to despoil millions of acres of pristine forest--including over 100,000 acres in New England's Green Mountain and White Mountain National Forests--that provide wildlife habitat, clean water and recreational opportunities.

National Forests preserve America's natural...