FORESTS CAN BE MANAGED AGAIN

Court cases now favor timber cutting: "Since President Bush signed a new forestry law in December, the government has won 17 straight court cases favoring timber cutting over challenges by environmentalists. Bush pushed for the law that sponsors named the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, saying it would reduce wildfires in national forests by thinning trees while also limiting appeals and environmental reviews of proposed timber sales.

The court victories mark a turnabout from recent years, when environmentalists succeeded in delaying and halting logging projects that the Bush administration and many Western lawmakers said could have removed the trees and underbrush fueling wildfires."