WASHINGTON OUTLOOK.

As President Bush assembles his leadership team for natural resource a ad environmental issues, we wander what effect it will have an important initiatives of the previous administration and Congress. Most immediately, we ore watching to see how the new administration responds to the national forest roadless-area policy signed by President Clinton days before he left office.

Those actions will set a political tone in Washington and could affect the outcome of other environmental policies.

We also ore anxiaus to see how the new administration will engage in issues related to communities and collaboration with state and local governments. We will need to see more details on the President's fiscal year 2002 budget proposal to understand how it views the importance of funding initiatives that strengthen and build partnerships with communities for forest protection, restoration, and stewardship.

The roadless policy that President Clinton signed in early January provides greater protection for nearly 60 million acres of inventoried roadless areas by prohibiting road construction and timber harvest, except for limited circumstances where small-diameter trees may be cut to protect certain values or improve roadless-area characteristics.

AMERICAN FORESTS supports this final role because it protects large-stale roadless areas that provide significant ecological services for all species, human and nonhuman. We believe the country is in a period when it should focus national forest investments on the restoration and mointenonce of areas that already have roads. This focus should include a strong emphasis on collaboration and learning so we can reduce the conflict that has surrounded notional forest issues for the post two decodes.

Although AMERICAN FORESTS supports the final rodless-area rule, we have concerns about the process by which it was developed. We expressed these concerns to the U.S. Forest Service in comments on the earlier draft proposal, but the final rule does not reflect these concerns.

To us, the roadless proposal seemed to be isolated from other major policy proposals that called for "collaborative stewardship" and increased investments in maintaining and improving the agency's existing notional forest road system. By not integrating well with these other proposals, the roadless area policy appears to be a "top-down" initiative that gives little concern to collaboration or to the future prospects of communities it would affect. These shortcomings, along with the rapid pace at which the proposal was developed, alienated many in the West, officials at the local and state levels, and people in rural communities who were generally supportive of increased protection for roadless areas.

That situation potentially sets the stage for the new administration or Congress to attempt to reverse the policy as a political response to this top-dawn process. But despite imposing a moratorium delaying the rule's start date until May, the administration does not seem inclined to take steps to reverse President Clinton's environmental initiatives. The new administration appears to be looking forward, and we're cautiously optimistic about a positive tone for debate on environmental issues. This tone, we hope, will create opportunity for bipartisan discussion and collaboration with state and local governments, as well as community groups.

A related concern is how President Bush's natural resource and environment leadership will respond to recent initiatives that provided significant investment and support for collaborative efforts with state and local governments as well as with local citizen groups, nonprofit organizations, and small businesses involved in forestland protection and restoration. last fall, Congress and the Clinton administration agreed--through negotiation and bipartisan effort--to significant new funding for forest conservation and stewardship in and around urban areas. This support appeared in Title VIII of last year's Interior Appropriations bill, with increases for the U.S. forest Service's Urban and Community Forestry and Forest Legacy programs.

Congress and the Clinton administration also committed to significant investment and new authorities for a long-term strategy to reduce wildfire risks around threatened communities. This support appeared in Title IV of last year's Interior Appropriations bill. With our partners, we will urge the new administration to continue these initiatives and to provide resources to help strengthen the capacity of communities to participate in efforts to protect, restore, and maintain healthy forest ecosystems.

With respect to community-based forestry in urban and rural areas, we hope the Bush administration will understand and strengthen the important federal role in these collaborative initiatives, yes, federal budgets are tight and there is a tendency to focus on direct management responsibilities. But the responsibility for and control of these initiatives should not be transferred to states or local jurisdictions. Federal leadership and participation are essential to provide community-based initiatives with technical assistance, to encourage open collaboration to address ecosystem sustainability at landscape scales with many landowners and government jurisdictions, and to help ensure that the national interest is given sufficient attention in local, place-based activities.