Bush Expected to Call for Planting Billions of Trees

WASHINGTON —  President Bush is expected to unveil a national tree planting campaign next week, proposing the government join private citizens and businesses in planting billions of trees to beautify communities, combat erosion and fight the greenhouse effect, Administration sources said Tuesday.

The plan, calling for $175 million in federal spending during the upcoming fiscal year, will be offered as part of an “America the Beautiful” initiative which will also include increased funds for government land acquisition and protection of national parks and forests, the sources said.

Details will be made public when the Administration budget is sent to Congress on Monday, and perhaps will be embellished in Bush’s State of the Union speech Wednesday.

Environmentalists were generally reluctant to comment on the initiative until they see its details.

But George M. Woodwell, director and founder of the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, said it appears to only be “a useful palliative, a mere palliative.” To have an impact on the greenhouse effect and the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere, he said, the over-arching problem of fossil fuel use must be addressed.

Sources familiar with the plan said it will call for the government to support the forestation of lands endangered by erosion and the creation of “energy parks.”

While the program will be carried out largely by the Agriculture Department’s National Forest Service, it has been pushed by the Environmental Protection Agency as an element of a pollution prevention strategy and as a step to fight the greenhouse effect largely caused by the emission of carbon dioxide.

The Administration also intends the program to be a message to Third World countries where the massive destruction of forests makes a substantial contribution to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. U.S. criticism of rain forest destruction has been met by charges that the United States is guilty of destroying its own forests by encouraging timber exports.

The Administration’s initiative comes as private groups and organizations such as the American Forestry Assn. have already made successful strides in increasing reforestation efforts.

Estimates are that 2 million trees have been planted in the last two years, and there has apparently been a small gain in acreage in forests, but data on tree harvests is scanty.

The new Administration program has been under consideration for months. The American Forestry Assn. has urged that efforts be focused on urban and community programs, and the planting of trees for windbreaks, shelter belts and along stream channels.

Under present programs, the Forest Service spends about $20 million per year on reforestation of public lands and supporting tree planting as part of the Agriculture Department’s soil conservation efforts. In addition, as much as $35 million a year is available from a trust fund supported by tariffs on forest products, and is used to protect and enhance existing timber stands. Altogether, about 490,000 acres are replanted by the government annually.