California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined attorneys general from eight other states earlier this week in opposing a federal proposal that would limit public participation in decisions about national forest projects.
In a letter to the U.S. Forest Service on Monday, the coalition said the proposal would make it harder for the public, tribes and environmental groups to comment on projects affecting national forests.
The rule would shorten some public comment periods from 30 days to 10 days and others from 45 days to 20 days, according to the attorneys general.
It would also remove the requirement that objections be reviewed by a neutral official and instead allow the project’s lead official to handle those objections.
The attorneys general argue that change could undermine fairness because the official reviewing the objection would be evaluating his or her own decision. “Responsibility for reviewing objections should lie not with the person proposing a project, but with a neutral party,” the letter states.
The review process applies to decisions such as timber sales, road-building and wildfire fuel reduction projects on national forest land.
California has about 20 million acres of national forest, including the Mendocino National Forest.
Attorneys general from Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington also signed the letter.
This story originally appeared in The Mendocino Voice.