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On August 22, 2002, President George Bush announced new proposals to contain wildfires that have ravaged much of the American west over the past few years. Under the proposals, announced by the president in southwestern Oregon, federal agencies would permit logging companies to thin out heavily wooded areas within approximately 190 million acres of forest considered to be high risk. Environmentalists say the plan is too generous to lumbering interests. They say such clearing should be allowed only near heavily populated areas, not in remote areas with old growth trees that they believe are critical wildlife habitat. So far this year, the federal government has spent over $1.5 billion fighting fires that have claimed approximately 6 million acres. Under a revised policy adopted in 2000 , the Forest Service allows some fires to burn and even sets some fires to reduce thick underbrush. Overall, however, it still works to suppress about 95 percent of all wildfire outbreaks.-8/22/02 |
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