Rules for public land use...

Rules for public land use may be relaxed: "The Interior Department wants to make it easier to exempt from environmental reviews any activities it sees as having minor effect on public lands, the agency's top lawyer said. The Bush administration is also determined to stop the use of the Endangered Species Act as a 'zoning tool' on federal lands, said William Myers, the department's solicitor general. 'It has gotten to the point where you can hardly dig a post hole without having to do an environmental analysis,' Myers said in a speech Thursday to about 100 members of the Nevada Cattlemen's Association, who welcomed his criticism of what they regard as onerous conservation measures. The cattlemen are among those critical of grazing reforms adopted under the Clinton administration, which they claim are aimed at driving sheep and cattle off public land in the West. "