Think of our planet as a living being and you will notice that Planet Earth has a delicate green skin of forests and grasslands. Kept in their natural state, these forests and grasslands have a great capacity to absorb carbon dioxide and keep the climate stable. At the same time, they transpire huge volumes of water, creating clouds, rain and cool temperatures.

This vital, tender skin of Earth is being stripped away by logging, farming and over- grazing. All of these practices have led to degraded soils that no longer grow vigorous trees and crops and are not capable of storing additional carbon dioxide or generating clouds and rain. A recent UN report warns that one third of the Earth’s surface is becoming so degraded it may soon be uninhabitable. Scientists say that what they see is a spreading patchy “rash” of dead areas across the planet’s skin.

Focus now on one country on Planet Earth, a country that has had the world’s most advanced environmental laws ­ a pure necessity given the scale and rapidity of the forces of economic development there. These laws have given Americans a legacy of parks, wild areas and natural forests, but these laws are now being shredded by the Bush administration.

In 1891, Congress established the Forest Reserves that became today’s National Forest system. Presidents Harrison and Cleveland added the first lands to the system. Teddy Roosevelt embraced the process enthusiastically, even boisterously, creating the Forest Service and preserving so much forest land that Congress grew alarmed and slammed the door with legislation eliminating presidential proclamation powers. Being an appropriations bill, T.R. had to sign it, but got his last laugh with the “Midnight Reserves” -- 16 million acres of new forest added at the last minute.

National Forests were not much logged until after World War II when increasing demand coupled with the decimation of private forests caused industry to turn to the public forest reserves. Extensive clearcutting in the 1960’s finally provoked a public outcry which brought on landmark environmental laws passed in the 1970’s ­ the National Forest Management Act (NFMA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Though much has been lost, these bedrock laws have kept vast forests and watersheds intact, but only through the dedicated work of citizens and public interest advocates who watchdog every move the Forest Service makes. This work seems to get harder and the gains more incremental every year. Since the 1984 Wilderness Act, Congress has not been persuaded to protect any more than the tiniest postage stamp bits of land.

In the late 1980’s, ecologists realized that the northern spotted owl was disappearing and that its status could serve as an indicator of the health of the forest as a whole. Environmentalists filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service based on the NFMA requirements to “maintain viable populations” of all species across their natural range.

This lawsuit produced an injunction that halted all logging in the Pacific Northwest. Newly elected President Clinton, rather than push for a legislative solution with his Democratically controlled Congress, convened a “Forest Conference” to find “win-win” solutions to the crisis.

The result was something called the Northwest Forest Plan, a compromised plan that failed to set aside all of the old growth forests, but had some important safeguards like the requirement that forests slated for cutting be surveyed first to see if they contained rare and imperiled species. For the first time in decades, there was some peace in the ancient forests.

But the plan applied only to the Northwest, and seeking protection for all the remaining wild forests, advocates worked throughout Clinton’s second term to secure the Roadless Rule, an administrative rule that would protect these intact forests from commercial logging and road building.

The Roadless Rule was extremely popular ­ 2.6 million people sent comments in support, but it has been a target of the Bush administration ever since they came to power. Unfortunately, like the Northwest Forest Plan, it is an administrative rule and is more vulnerable to change than Congressionally designated Wilderness.

Bush’s first act on taking office on January 20, 2001 was to suspend the Roadless Rule and a number of other new environmental regulations. He then allowed a “sweetheart” challenge to the rule by the timber industry to go to court without government defense. Luckily, environmentalists were able to intervene in the primary case and defend the rule.

But the industry won an exemption for Alaskan forests ­ one quarter of the roadless forests the rule is supposed to protect. Then, recently, in a rare victory for the forests, the House denied funding for new road building in the Alaskan forests. The fight goes on, and more attempts to defeat or weaken the Roadless Rule are in the offing.

Bush’s next tactic was a familiar one ­ fearmongering. Using the fear of wildfire, team Bush created something called the “Healthy Forest Initiative” ­ a whole package of goodies for the timber industry that has been implemented under various guises as a kind of “shock and awe” for the forests.

The first target was NEPA. NEPA is the law that requires agencies to analyze the environmental impact of their proposals and take public comment. NEPA allows for “categorical exclusions” to this process for small, insignificant projects like repaving a parking lot or building a new forest ranger station. Categorical exclusions were never meant to do what they are doing under Bush: now any timber sale less than 1000 acres is exempt from analysis and review as long as they say it’s for fuel reduction. The Forest Service can simply proceed with one 1000 acre timber sales after another with no oversight.

The next strike was called “stewardship contracting” ­ a creative term for turning the forests over to timber companies with no accountability. Bush’s budget has slashed funds to do the limited, legitimate fuel reduction that is needed around communities. Bush says let stewardship contracting provide the funds. How? By giving timber companies the big, commercially valuable and less flammable trees in exchange for clearing out the fire-prone but worthless sticks and brush. Let the forest pay for its own “protection”.

Nor has the Northwest Forest Plan been immune to the Bush assault. In March 2004, the administration eliminated two key provisions of the plan: the requirement to survey and manage for rare species and the requirement to make sure timber sales do not harm fish and other aquatic species.

Two former Forest Service Chiefs, Jack Ward Thomas and Mike Dombeck, have both stated that we should simply put all remaining old growth forests off limits to logging, which would eliminate the need for these expensive surveys. But Bush’s only concern with old growth is organizing the last buffalo hunt.

Perhaps the scariest regulatory changes the Bush team is pushing are their changes to NFMA. It was the NFMA “viability” rule that was the basis for the spotted owl lawsuit that led to the Northwest Forest Plan. Bush wants to exempt the Forest Service from the requirement to provide habitat for species. He also wants to eliminate the requirement that Forest Service actions comply with long term forest plans, essentially giving forest managers a free hand to dispose of forest resources with no public input or oversight. This would return us to the days before Teddy Roosevelt, when the timber monopolies ruled unchecked.

Now, at the end of Bush II, term I, we can see that the forests are in a perilous position. The thin green line of protective rules and regulations has been attacked from every angle. Nominally still in place, this green shield has been worn to such thinness that it is virtually transparent. Yet to the untrained eye, the laws are still in place. If there is a Bush II, term II, the gloves will come off and the thin green line will be ruptured for all to see.

God help us and our fragile Planet Earth.