"A new study takes aim at the idea that environmental reviews take too long for timber and other projects in national forests.

Forrest Fleischman, a professor at the University of Minnesota's Department of Forest Resources, said his research largely shows the opposite: that the Forest Service completes environmental reviews faster than other federal agencies and that the vast majority of projects on land the service oversees proceed without a major hitch.

The real problem, Fleischman told E&E News, is staffing or funding shortages or both, and the difficulties seem to vary from Forest Service region to region."

Marc Heller reports for Greenwire May 5, 2020. [2]