U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth spoke in San Francisco yesterday in honor of Earth Day, but audience members might not have been very thrilled by what he had to say on behalf of the planet. Bosworth criticized environmentalists for trying to protect forests from logging and road-building projects, claiming that in fact the real threats to forests are fires and invasive species. With those priorities in mind, Bosworth said his agency would support a forest-management plan that calls for increased cutting in national forests and that is, no surprise, the darling of the logging industry. His speech made formal the USFS’s commitment to the plan, and the agency will begin implementing the new policies soon.
