ALERT
Write a letter!
Attend a Meeting!
HELP STOP THE BUSH
ADMINISTRATION'S DISASTROUS FOREST MANAGEMENT PROPOSAL
THE FOREST SERVICE NEEDS TO HEAR FROM
YOU!
* ** Send in Your Personal
Comments by APRIL 7th ***
The National Forest Management Act (NFMA) of 1976 requires the US
Forest
Service to develop a management plan for each National Forest or
administrative unit. The regulations (or rules) that implement
this law
are key in detailing the requirements that the agency must follow
in
developing the plan. As part of its barrage of damaging proposals
the
Bush administration has announced changes to the NFMA rules. The
draft
proposal would greatly reduce the amount of environmental
analysis,
wildlife protection, and public involvement currently required in
the
development and revision of forest management plans and the
management
of our National Forests.
The current regulations, first implemented early in the Reagan
administration, were revised and updated in 2000 after
significant
scientific and public input. But after complaints from the timber
industry, the Bush administration put the revised safeguards on
the
chopping block. Undersecretary for Natural Resources and
Environment
Mark Rey, a former lobbyist for the American Forest and Paper
Association, has led the charge. Unremarkably, today's NFMA
changes
mirror the timber industry "wish list" from the
American Forest and
Paper Association's 2001 congressional testimony.
The Bush administration's proposed NFMA rules would:
** Effectively exempt the plan revisions from the National
Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA.) By not requiring a full environmental impact
analysis
of the revised plan, this one step would give agency managers
total
discretion on when and how much they wanted to involve the public
and
how they would weigh public input.
** Eliminate the requirement to maintain viable populations of
native
wildlife species. This current requirement is one of the most
important
legal safeguards of National Forest wildlife habitat.
** Eliminates requirements in the 2000 regulations to evaluate
and
protect wild roadless forests.
** Increase the likelihood of harmful logging projects based on
"multiple use values." This would allow
commercial logging under the
guise of "wildlife habitat improvement," or "fuel
reduction," among
other reasons.
** Reduces overall environmental standards and accountability by
allowing management plans to be revised to accommodate individual
projects and opens loopholes for "adaptable
management."
** Drastically limit public involvement and allow no opportunity
to
request administrative review or an appeal of the final plan.
YOU CAN HELP! -- Send official comments to the Forest
Service and a
copy of your comments to your Congressional representatives.
Comments
should be sent by April 7! Please raise the above points in your
comments and use the sample latter below.
Your Comments should by sent to:
USDA FS Planning Rule
Content Analysis Team
P.O. Box 8359
Missoula, MT 59807
via email planning_rule@fs.fed.us
fax (406) 329-3556
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Forest Service:
Many Americans relish their trips to any of America's 155
National
Forests today, thanks in large part to forest protection measures
that
have been in place for decades. But if the Bush administration
and its
timber industry allies get their way, the public's forests will
be
managed to maximize commercial logging profits with little
consideration
of harm to fish and wildlife, clean water and recreation.
I oppose the Bush Administration's Proposed Changes to National
Forest
Management (NFMA) regulations. These proposed regulations would
weaken
environmental and wildlife safeguards, harm wild forests and
clean
water, drastically limit public involvement, increase damaging
commercial logging projects, and reduce agency accountability.
Please
completely withdraw these harmful proposed NFMA regulations.
Our National Forests belong to all Americans, not just those who
wield
chainsaws and donate money to political campaigns. Instead of
undermining current National Forest and wildlife protections, the
Bush
Administration and the Forest Service should be working to
protect our
wild roadless forests, stop damaging commercial logging and
logging road
construction and restore our National Forests. Please count this
as my
official comment on these proposed regulations.
3/20/03
New dams in the Middle
Fork Basin of the Nooksack River?
Balaton Power, of Boise ID, has proposed building two
hydroelectric dams, one on Clearwater Creek and another on Warm
Creek. Both creeks are tributaries to the Middle Fork of the
Nooksack River.
While the Clearwater Dam has been denied, the decision can still
be appealed. Meanwhile, the Warm Creek dam proposal continues to
move forward. Let's make sure that these projects are stopped.
Representatives from the City of Bellingham and the Nooksack
Tribe will also be speaking about their efforts to restore the
Middle Fork and to make the city's diversion dam passable for
salmon.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.ecosystem.org/clearwater.html
New dams in the Middle Fork Basin of the Nooksack River?
2/23/03
Home
|