National Forest Management Act Of 1976 –
The National Forest Management Act (NFMA) is a cornerstone of environmental law intended to protect biodiversity in National Forests and to ensure public involvement in forest planning and management. It provides for logging while recognizing “the fundamental need to protect and where appropriate, improve the quality of soil, water, and air resources.” NFMA is supposed to insure that timber will be harvested from National Forest lands “only where..soil, slope or other watershed conditions will not be irreversibly damaged.” It also specifies that “protection is provided for streams, stream-banks, shorelines, lakes, wetlands, and other bodies of water from detrimental changes in water temperatures, blockages of water courses, and deposits of sediment, where harvest are likely to seriously and adversely affect water conditions or fish habitat.
Source: River Network
