Facts about the ICBEMP

ICBEMP is a Clinton administration policy decision. No federal statute requires ecosystem management and Congress has never authorized any agency with ecosystem management as its primary mission.

• CBEMP will require updates of 74 Federal land use plans for 45 National Forests and BLM Districts.
• BLM and the Forest Service have worked on this project for more than four year and spent $35-40 million, none of it authorized by Congress. There are more than 4,000 pages in the DEIS and supporting documents.
• The Interior Columbia Basin encompasses 144 million acres of forest and rangeland, an area slightly smaller than the 13 original colonies.
• The area covers most or parts of 7 states and contains 100 counties and 476 cities, towns, or villages.
  

"I promise you I can do anything you want by saying it is ecosystem management. It's incredibly nebulous." - Jack Ward Thomas, Former Chief, U.S. Forest Service
(from Blue Ribbon Magazine, 2/98)