http://www.arizonarepublic.com/opini...07sat1-07.html

Budding ideas
Napolitano's hints place forest care ahead of partisan issues

The Arizona Republic

A plant takes root on the charred floor of the forest near Clay Springs, where
the "Rodeo-Chediski" fire spread its destruction last summer.

Dec. 7, 2002


Gov.-elect Janet Napolitano gave some hints earlier this week about where she
stands on protecting Arizona's forests, and her perspective looks reassuring.


It seems clear the new governor hopes to assure a "Rodeo-Chediski" inferno does
not rage here again. And Napolitano, a Democrat, may even lock arms with a
Republican president to see to it.

While she is not yet willing to fully endorse President Bush's aggressive plan
for treating the nation's unhealthy forests, Napolitano said this week she does
share some of the goals.

Napolitano said she agrees with Bush that forests need to be thinned of smaller
trees and that the tinder-dry debris that has littered forest floors for
decades needs to be removed.

Further, she noted that improved forest management will be an important goal of
her administration, a declaration that rural Arizonans in particular will find
reassuring.

On the other hand, Napolitano added that she wants to ensure that the Bush plan
does not go too far in the realm of forest clearing. Fair enough.

As a Democrat, Napolitano may be hiking into some rough terrain. Her party's
environmental wing, which often chooses to resist forest-thinning projects, has
scolded several congressional Dems for embracing Bush's plan too
enthusiastically.

The Green lobby still is wincing over the spectacle earlier this year involving
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who brokered a special deal to suspend
citizen rights to appeal a forest logging project near a resort area in
Daschle's home state, South Dakota.

Napolitano has voiced support in principle, at least, that litigation rights
regarding forest thinning projects should be tightened - a laudable sentiment.

But as environmentalists have noted, the devil in deciding what constitutes
proper forest management lies in the details. And Napolitano has yet to work
her way into that minutiae.

Still, it appears at first blush the governor-to-be will let the state's best
interests, rather than those of an influential constituency, drive her policy
on forest management.

It's a sound decision.