BUTTE (AP) - U.S. Sen. Jon Tester is touting his big logging and wilderness bill in travels around the state this month, even as the health care debate is on the minds of most.
Tester says his forest bill will have to wait until after the health care debate in Congress wraps up later this year. That means the forest plan probably wouldn't reach the Senate floor until next year.
He says it will create jobs by mandating logging, while preserving recreation and animal habitat by establishing more wilderness and protected areas.
Critics are attacking the plan from the left and the right. Ardent wilderness advocates don't like that it allows more logging - and some on the other side argue it locks up too much federal land.
Tester says he thinks most like that the bill was crafted with consensus among loggers and conservationists.