For the second year running, the Interior Columbia
Basin Ecosystem Management Project (ICBEMP, or Ice Bump) has
survived an attempt on its life in the U.S.
Congress.
The plan is the federal government’s
most ambitious ecosystem management plan ever, covering 72 million
acres of public lands sprawling across seven states. The $40
million environmental impact statement (EIS) took five years and
has produced as much criticism as answers (HCN,
11/23/98).
Critics representing timber, ranching
and local governments say it relies on “one-size-fits-all
prescriptions’ and fails to provide certainty to industries, while
environmentalists say it strays from scientific findings on a wide
range of issues.
In September, Northwest
Republican lawmakers attached riders to appropriations budgets that
would have ended the program, shifting management responsibility to
local BLM and Forest Service offices. The Republicans appeared to
have the votes, but as public support continued for Clinton despite
“Monica-gate,” emboldened administration officials said President
Clinton would veto the appropriations bill if the ICBEMP rider
remained. Congress blinked.
But Northwest
Republicans also received assurances from Interior Secretary Bruce
Babbitt and Agriculture Secretary Glickman that ICBEMP would
respond to congressional concerns. Issues that are local, such as
management of species that occur in limited areas, will be kicked
down to the local planning offices. However, regional issues like
salmon and steelhead protection and forest health will be decided
at the regional level, though, “we’re leaving specifics of how you
get to outcomes to the people on the ground,” says ICBEMP spokesman
Andy Brunelle. The new approach will be spelled out in a
supplemental EIS due in 2000.
Will the changes
satisfy critics? “This may be one of those issues where you still
leave people less than happy,” says Brunelle.
*
Chris Carrel
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Ice Bump survives congressional ax.
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