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Some civil liberties and environmentalist groups think point-and-click democracy is in peril.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service is currently considering a regulation that would let it ignore any public comments on its rule-making process sent to it through Web-based forms.

For example, if someone opposes logging in a national forest and sends a comment to the Forest Service through an environmental group's Web site, the agency would ignore it under the proposed policy. In fact, the agency intends to implement technology to sort its e-mail and disregard duplicated messages.

Pre-printed postcards and other more traditional form letters sent through the Postal Service would also be rejected under the proposed regulation. Also, the Forest Service is apparently not participating in Regulations.gov, a Web site recently launched as a one-stop shop for citizens to review and comment on pending governmental action.

Hampering Comment?

If the new plan takes effect, it will essentially disable the Web-based "action centers" that thousands of advocacy groups use to rally support for their efforts and help people contact lawmakers electronically.

"It's a slippery slope. We're worried it could slip over to other agencies," says Ilsa Flanagan, associate director of Sustain, an environmental advocacy group.

Digital civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation questions the legality as well as the advisability of such a move.

"Quite apart from being troubling I think it's flatly unconstitutional and we certainly would consider a legal challenge to the rule," says Cindy Cohn, EFF legal director.

The EFF Web site is among those that uses Web-based forms. People have sent 130,000 e-mail messages to Congress through the EFF online action center since 2002.

"It's the wave of the future for busy Americans using the Internet to send their thoughts to federal agencies," Cohn says.

Thousands of organizations of all stripes--from the American Conservative Union to the American Civil Liberties Union, from the National Right to Life Coalition to the National Organization for Women--use such Web forms to help their members and supporters contact and lobby lawmakers.

These form letters summarize the details of pending legislation in jargon-free language.

Volume Control

Ian Walters, spokesperson for the American Conservative Union, says his group effectively uses Web tools to send nearly 30,000 form e-mail messages quarterly to federal agencies or elected representatives.

"The sausage factory that is the legislative process can be very complicated," Walters says. "It's a very esoteric insider type of game. What we aim to do is to make that process more agreeable to our members, not that we simplify it but we make it more understandable."

The Forest Service says duplicated public comments, whether electronic or on paper, often provide little helpful input. However, the agency has counted all comments in the past, says Forest Service spokesperson Joe Walsh.

"A bunch of e-mails that say the same thing with no specific comments don't tell us anything," Walsh says. "We'll take e-mails by the millions" if the correspondence becomes more specific, he adds.

"If you're going to take the time to respond and you care, then put some effort into it," Walsh advises correspondents.

Yet the EFF's Cohn says this would unfairly "place a burden on the average citizen to write their own unique analysis of the situation from scratch." She says Internet action alerts "have really flooded members of Congress and administrative agencies with comments because they make it easy for people to have their voices heard," she says. "It should be embraced. It's a benefit of these technologies."

Bigger Picture

The Forest Service is expected to decide on the proposed new policy within the next few months, staffers say. It is not a standalone proposal, however; the change was tucked into the National Forest System Land and Resources Management Planning Rule, an unrelated regulation that calls for revoking parts of the National Forest Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

The public comment period recently ended for that proposal. The Forest Service board will consider the measure after an appeal process, but without additional formal public input.

Some environmental advocacy groups charge that the Bush administration is making a systematic effort to reduce citizen participation. They accuse the Forest Service of burying this proposed rule inside unrelated regulations.

More than 100 members of Congress oppose the National Forest System Land and Resources Management Planning Rule. Most contend the regulation rolls back necessary environmental policy. Some also oppose the clause against electronic communications, according to Congressional staff.

The Forest Service's Walsh says the agency has received a number of objections to the proposed policy against electronic communications and "could very well adjust this in the final regulation."

Technical Issue

The attempt to disregard mass e-mail "speaks to the technical capacity of the Forest Service," according to Stuart Trevelyan, senior managing partner at the Carol/Trevelyan Strategy Group, which develops Web site action alert software used by some nonprofit groups.

Trevelyan says the unsophisticated software that small nonprofit groups' Web sites use to contact rule makers might make all messages appear as replicas when, in fact, individuals sent them.

As a result, a government agency might receive what it assumes is a stream of e-mail from one sender, when a number of people have voiced their opinions through one Web site.

Trevelyan says the agency has other ways to deal with a flood of e-mail instead of rejecting messages outright. He urges it to not discount electronic lobbying.

"It's accurate to say 50,000 people sent the same letter," he says. "To say 49,999 didn't send the letter is not accurate."

In fact, dealing with electronic correspondence is an ongoing challenge for the federal government. Elected officials and federal agencies have long said e-mail is not the most effective way to reach them; they also acknowledge they are challenged by the volume.

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