Agencies Told to Speed OKs for Logging : Forestry: Gov. Wilson says the expedited permitting is designed to protect jobs. Environmental groups charge that it will mean more cutting in the state’s dwindling forests.

SACRAMENTO —  Surrounded by top timber industry officials, Gov. Pete Wilson ordered state agencies Monday to speed up their approvals of logging permits in the economically depressed forest regions of Northern California.

Wilson, who made the announcement at the Scotia headquarters of the giant Pacific Lumber Co., gave the departments of forestry and fish and game 60 days to come up with new procedures for quicker approval of timber harvest plans.

The governor said the expedited permitting would protect jobs that might otherwise be lost to governmental delays.

The decision angered environmentalists, who complained that the governor’s directive would lessen environmental review of logging plans and set the stage for more cutting in the state’s dwindling forests.

“What it very well could mean is that environmental issues involving timber harvest plans will be moved to the back burner,” said Michael Parparian, state director of the Sierra Club California. “When review and careful investigation of environmental impacts are needed the state won’t do it because there won’t be time.”

Before timber companies can begin logging, they must submit a plan outlining the acreage they plan to cut and showing what steps they intend to take to mitigate any environmental damage. The state can reject the plans or order alterations designed to lessen the environmental impacts.

In the last two years, the state has only rejected three of the more than 1,500 timber harvest plans submitted by logging companies.

Wilson, who also accused the Clinton Administration of leaning too far in the environmental direction, said his only goal was to preserve jobs threatened by “unreasonable delays” in the permitting process.

Environmental groups have become increasingly critical of the Wilson Administration as it moves to expedite and streamline the state’s environmental permitting process. They were particularly unhappy that Wilson made his announcement at the headquarters of Pacific Lumber Co., a corporation frequently criticized by conservation groups for its logging practices.