USA: Is Obama’s big billion dollar USFS budget backed with big eco-minded changes?

The stimulus bill that passed the House last week directed more than a
billion dollars to the U.S. Forest Service. Portland Democrat Ron
Wyden wants to keep Forest Service funding in the Senate stimulus bill
too. And Monday, the Obama administration signaled it wants a bigger
budget for the Forest Service.

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http://news.opb.org/article/4230-obama-administration-will-shift-forest-service-policy/

On OPB’s Think Out Loud, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the
U.S. Forest Service will incorporate new climate change policies. Tom
Vilsack: “Forests can play an integral role in the issue of climate
change and I think they have a very significant and important role to
play in terms of water.”

Vilsack said the agency’s fight against global warming wouldn’t come at the expense of the timber industry. He wants additional funding for forest management and wildfire fighting.

Tom Vilsack: “That general maintenance budget is being
robbed, to pay for the cost of forest fires, which means we can’t do
as good a job as we need to do of managing the forests, which results
in turn, of more fires and more intense fires.”

Get full text; support writer, producer of the words:
http://news.opb.org/article/4230-obama-administration-will-shift-forest-service-policy/