text: Forest Bill Poised To Clear Congress - WSJ
  Forest Bill Poised To Clear Congress
  WASHINGTON -- Landmark forest legislation is poised to clear Congress, after House and Senate negotiators gave final approval to a plan promising federal land managers more license -- and money -- to address threats of catastrophic fires and insect infestations.
  The action came as the Republican leadership and White House struggled to complete a $700 billion-plus omnibus spending measure wrapping together final appropriations bills for the coming year. Education and health budget priorities divided the party, but the biggest conflict is over proposed Labor Department rules making it easier for employers to deny white-collar and administrative personnel overtime.
  Under Thursday's agreement, the bill directs the Forest Service to develop new administrative rules quickly to help speed the processing of forest-thinning projects, which also would be subject to expedited environmental and court review. Preliminary injunctions, or court-ordered stays, pending appeal would be limited to 60 days; judges are directed to "balance the impact to the ecosystem" against the short- and long-term effects of whether the thinning project goes ahead or not.
  Designated wilderness areas are exempt from the new logging rules, which would be applied to no more than 20 million acres of national forests -- about a tenth of the total. Environmentalists remain critical of the whole experiment, but new protections have been added for "old growth" forests.
  The recent California wildfires helped spur the compromise after years of partisan fighting among Western lawmakers. But the biggest force has been an unusual coalition of Northwestern and Southeastern timber interests that expanded the mission -- and political support -- by reaching out to non-Westerners worried less about fire than about insect infestations in their local forests.