WASHINGTON -- Managers of the nation's 155 national forests are getting more leeway to approve logging and other commercial projects with less formal environmental review under a Bush administration plan on track to be in place by the end of the year.

A final draft of the new forest management rules obtained by The Associated Press drew immediate fire from environmentalists. They accused the administration of bowing to the timber and paper industries and weakening standards for protecting endangered or threatened species.

The new rules will be reviewed by the White House's Office of Management and Budget before going into effect this fall.

Revamps 1976 act

The plan would overhaul application of the landmark 1976 National Forest Management Act, which sets the basic rules for management of the nation's 190 million acres of forests and grasslands and protects forest wildlife.

The final rules would leave intact some of the most controversial proposals from an earlier version released last November. Like that version, the final plan would give regional managers of the Forest Service more discretion to approve logging, drilling and mining operations without having to conduct formal scientific investigations known as environmental impact statements.

Such analyses, which outline the impact of a proposed activity on plant and animal life, can take years to complete. The new rules envision a more flexible approach that could be completed in months.

Forest Service officials said the new rules are designed to make forest planning more responsive to changing conditions by eliminating unnecessary paperwork and relying on assessments by local and regional managers.

"What we like most about this rule is it engages the public better than we have done in the past by promoting early involvement, making the plans easier to understand and getting them done in less than seven years," said Sally Collins, associate chief of the Forest Service.

Cutting costs

Collins said the Forest Service could cut costs by as much as 30 percent under the new approach.

She and other officials argued the plan maintains and even strengthens environmental protections, while increasing flexibility for forest managers.

But environmentalists denounced the proposal as a giveaway to business interests, which want to increase commercial activity in national forests.

"President Bush has repeatedly shown that he doesn't think science should play much of a role in the environmental polices of his administration," said Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, an advocacy group. "The revised forest planning regulations cut out scientific assessment to meet the needs of the timber, oil and gas industries."

Environmentalists said they were especially troubled that the plan would relax a requirement that the government protect fish and wildlife in national forests so the species do not become threatened or endangered. Instead, the rules assert an overarching goal to "maintain healthy, diverse and resilient native ecosystems."

The plan would direct forest managers to identify threats to wildlife, contribute to recovery of threatened or endangered species, and provide ecological conditions that help prevent species from becoming listed as threatened or endangered.

"If you don't require managers to retain the current population of species then they are not going to do it," said Sean Cosgrove of the Sierra Club.

Cosgrove called the plan absurd.

"They want to take us back 100 years and ignore all existing science and ignore progressive management policies. It's ridiculous," he said.

Industry groups have applauded the regulations, saying the administration is returning common sense to forest planning.

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