The plan, which covers all uses of forest — including timber harvests, grazing, recreation and wilderness — is expected to become final in early March. Until then, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack could still make changes.

But when Vilsack announced the plan last week, he called it "a strong framework to restore and manage our forests and watersheds and help deliver countless benefits to the American people." The plan is being published Friday in the Federal Register.

Conservationists say the wildlife provision is a crucial weak point.

"This plan is much less protective than the 1982 Reagan-era one on wildlife protection," said Niel Lawrence, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "This provision is the single strongest protection for the national forests, and the agency is not retaining it."

The 1982 rule required the Forest Service to manage fish and wildlife habitat so that healthy populations of animals are "well-distributed" throughout each forest.

The new plan drops that language. Instead, it requires forest managers to maintain habitats. It leaves it up to the official in charge of a region's forests to decide whether any individual species needs extra protection to ensure that it will continue to exist over the long term with "sufficient distribution."

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