Reacting to both criticism and constructive advice, Sen. Jon Tester revealed a thick list of changes to his Forest Jobs and Recreation Act during a visit to Missoula on Friday.
In all, Tester proposed 21 changes to S. 1470. Many involve assurances that 10,000 acres a year of timber would be cut, with proper scientific monitoring and protection from excessive litigation.
Last month, U.S. Forest Service officials complained that the acreage might be an unsustainable amount of logging. Tester responded that the agency needs to change the way it manages timber.
"What we're talking about doing is changing the landscape so the Forest Service can manage that forest better. It's changed in the last 30 years. We're giving them some tools so they can change with that. Ultimately I still feel, in a multimillion-acre forest with tens of thousands of acres in the wildland-urban interface, they can easily find the acres that need to be cut."
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