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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2002

"With his "Healthy Forests Initiative," President Bush has taken decisive action to address the catastrophic fires that have been rampaging across the West. The program is a common-sense approach to reducing fuel loads in forests.

As part of the initiative, the president has called on Congress to reduce the red tape forest managers must wade through before thinning forests. This is what Congress agreed to do in the Black Hills of South Dakota earlier this summer at the urging of Sen. Tom Daschle. It's what we need to do across the West. We are now formulating proposals for reasonable reforms.

As its name suggests, however, the Healthy Forests Initiative is about more than stopping catastrophic fires. It's about restoring our forest ecosystems to health and providing good habitat for wildlife. . ."

Get the Story:
Gale A. Norton: A Better Plan For the Forests (The Washington Post 9/17)
Interior chief pushes Bush forest plan (The Arizona Republic 9/17)
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Relevant Links:
Healthy Forest Initiative - http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/healthyforests/index.html

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Norton promotes forest initiative (9/5)
Norton: Cut the forests down (8/28)
Bush promotes healthy forest initiative (8/23)
Bill to speed up tribal timber sales (8/21)