House slashes conservation funds

WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- The House of Representatives has voted to make deep cuts in conservation spending.

Affected programs include funding for additions to National Parks, Forests and Wildlife refuges, state parks and recreational facilities and forest conservation on private land.

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Lawmakers cut support for the Forest Legacy public-private forest conservation effort by over 25 percent, threatening planned activities to sustain working forests.

In what the National Wildlife Federation called Friday "a rebuke to the Bush administration," however, over 180 members of the House repeatedly backed leaders who brought up a series of attempts to overturn administration policy on National Forests, Wildlife Refuges and Parks.