Forest Service Bill Called Warning Shot

WASHINGTON — Efforts by Western senators to control the U.S. Forest Service reflect their increasing frustration with the Clinton Administration’s failure to permit more logging in national forests, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said Wednesday.

Led by Stevens, the Senate adopted an amendment to an appropriations bill Tuesday night that takes the Forest Service from the oversight of Agriculture Undersecretary Jim Lyons and gives it directly to the secretary of Agriculture.

“I consider it to be just a modest shot across the bow,” Stevens told the Senate. “We want the laws that Congress passes, after long battles here in the Congress, to be observed.”

Stevens was incensed over Lyons’ failure to follow laws allowing more trees to be cut in forests in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Northern California.