ERLIN, N.H. - Senator John McCain said yesterday that, if elected president, he would overturn President Clinton's executive order putting more national forest land off limits to logging. He called the order an example of Washington's arrogance.
McCain, Republican of Arizona, also said he would ''never lose sight of the fundamental principle'' that land management decisions must be made in conjunction with the people who make their homes in the communities that would be affected.
''The idea that Washington knows best and that local residents cannot be trusted to do what's right in their own backyard is the epitome of federal arrogance,'' said McCain, who outlined an environmental agenda in a speech to about 100 people at the edge of White Mountain National Forest. The forest encompasses 780,000 acres in northern New Hampshire and western Maine, and many area residents work in logging, forestry, and the paper and pulp mills in Berlin and neighboring Gorham.
Clinton's executive order in October made more of the forest off limits to logging and started a process that could lead to further acreage restrictions.
McCain said his environmental agenda also includes:
Upgrading national parks, using public and private financing to eliminate a $5 billion backlog in projects within eight years.
Focusing federal research on promising environmental technologies.
Making federal agencies abide by environmental laws.
Frequent monitoring and reporting on the environment, as with the economy.
McCain said public scrutiny and comment should be integral to ''every significant land-management decision.''
