The Departments of Agriculture and the Interior released new proposed regulations that will impact the way federal land agencies manage fuel reduction in forests. Based on the President's Healthy Forest Initiative, the new regulations, if approved, will streamline environmental reviews and provide a shortened appeals process for high-priority, at-risk forests.

The most significant change would create system-wide "categorical exclusions" from the National Environmental Policy Act for fuels-reduction and post-fire restoration work. A categorical exclusion from NEPA would mean that the Forest Service and DOI would no longer have to prepare individual environmental impact statements for those thinning and restoration projects, nor would they have to allow for public comment periods. Exemptions would not be allowed for projects in wilderness areas, inventoried roadless areas, wetlands, where pesticides would have to be used or where the project could adversely affect threatened or endangered species. The administration also proposed changes to expedite the existing administrative appeals process.