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RECENT ALERT: September 28, 1999
HELP PROTECT OUR FORESTS
:
The U.S. Forest Service commercial logging program continues to dig itself into a
deeper hole, creating more environmental damage and a larger restoration bill for
the taxpayers each year. The commercial logging program has created the legacy of a
destructive network of clearcuts, 440,000 miles of logging roads and more than $2
billion lost by American taxpayers in the last two years. Along with this has come
long-term damage to wildlife, fish habitat and clean drinking water sources.
On April 13th, the National Forest Protection and
Restoration Act (NFPRA) was introduced into the House of Representatives, as H.R. 1396,
by Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA). If passed, this bill
would ban all logging in our national forests, thereby protecting watersheds,
slowing erosion, and maintaining and reclaiming wildlife habitat.
The national forest timber sales program operated at a net loss to taxpayers of
$1.2 billion in fiscal year 1997. The NFPRA would end taxpayer subsidies of logging
activities on federal lands, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars
annually.
Your help is needed to urge your Congressional representative to support this bill.
There is a complete list of H.R. 1396 co-sponsors and NFPRA facts below the following
letters. If your representative has not already co-sponsored this bill, please send
them this
‘Co-sponsor’ letter
as soon as possible. Simply copy and paste
into your word processing program and add your representative’s name, and your name
and address. If your representative has already co-sponsored this bill, please send
the them the
‘Thank You’ letter.
Thank you for your help and support for the sake of our forests.
FOREST SERVICE DECIDES TO DOUBLE LOGGING
IN NORTHERN SIERRA NEVADA
FORESTS
(taken from the August 20th issue of the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign newsletter)
The Forest Service today released its final decision on how to implement the Quincy Library Group Act. The Act, as drafted, would DOUBLE logging on hundreds of square miles of the northern Sierra Nevada, on the Plumas, Lassen and Tahoe National Forests. The Act, however, also requires that any activities carried out be consistent with all environmental laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Clean Water Act (CWA), and the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Dozens of local grassroots groups have opposed the Quincy plan from the start. Over 7000 comments (three-quarters of the comments received) on the draft plan asked for greater environmental protection. The Nevada County Board of Supervisors recently passed a resolution asking for an alternative that protects the national forests, and 52 local businesses in the Quincy plan area sent a letter asking that the Forest Service reconsider their preferred alternative in favor of an alternative that protects values like old growth, streams and rivers and wild places. Even some of the Forest Services own scientists have criticized this plan.
Today's decision was to accept Alternative 2 (the full logging plan) but to constrain where logging could occur until a later date, based on concern for harming the habitat of the California spotted owl. The decision was to defer logging in some California spotted owl habitat until new guidelines are developed for owl protection, presumably through the "Framework EIS," a rangewide plan being developed for managing all Sierra Nevada national forests. The draft of the Framework EIS is expected to be released early next month, but a final plan is many months away. While the owl has not yet been listed as an endangered species, its numbers have been declining drastically throughout the Sierra. In the Quincy region, the owl has declined at a rate of 7.7 percent a year for the past several years.
Conservation groups across the state are criticizing the decision to implement Alternative 2 as a step backward to the old days of single-species management. In these forests are found numerous species in decline including goshawk, American marten, endangered wild salmon, at risk amphibians, and more. "To comply with environmental laws all these species must be protected, not just the owl. The Forest Service is opening itself up to challenge for failing to address all of the animals in these forests," said Scott Hoffman Black of the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign. They can’t get this volume and maintain species viability. Our concern is that the eastern half of the landscape placed under the Quincy plan has few owls and therefore little protection. These eastside pine forests will suffer under the minimal wildlife protection while being subject to the new intensive logging in the Quincy bill.
The next step as the Forest Service moves to implement Quincy is a 60-day formal administrative appeal period.
HOME DEPOT TO GIVE UP SELLING OLD GROWTH
(taken from the 8/31 issue of LANDSCOPE, News and Views from American Lands)
Home Depot announced last week that the company will phase out the sale of wood products from old growth forests by the end of 2002. "Our pledge to our customers, associates and stockholders is that Home Depot will stop selling wood products from environmentally sensitive areas," said Home Depot President and CEO Arthur Blank. "Home Depot embraces its responsibility as a global leader to help protect endangered forests. We will eliminate from our stores wood from endangered areas and give preference to certified wood." . . .
This is a huge victory for everyone who has been encouraging Home Depot to stop selling old growth wood products. Activists need to continue working to ensure that Home Depot fully implements and enforces this policy. Thanks to Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace, Free the Planet, Sierra Club Student Coalition, Student Environmental Action Coalition, Forest Action Network and Earth Culture and to all the grassroots organizations and activists who worked so hard to bring about this major change of policy to protect old growth forests around the world.
National Forest Protection and Restoration Act (NFPRA)
409 Mendocino Ave., Suite A
Santa Rosa, CA 95401-8513 Tel. (707) 573-3160
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