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URGENT: CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TODAY!

FLOOR VOTE IMMINENT -- VOTE NO ON McINNIS BILL (HR 1904)!!

It's out of committee and headed for a House floor vote -- the terrible "Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003" (HR 1904) introduced by Representative McInnis (R-CO) will be considered on the House Floor as early as Tuesday May 20th. The bill has already passed the Resources Committee, the Agriculture Committee, and the Judiciary Committee. We must generate as much opposition to the bill as possible before it goes to the House floor on the 20th.

PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IMMEDIATELY AT 1-800-839-5276 AND URGE THEM TO VOTE "NO" ON HR 1904, THE "HEALTHY FORESTS RESTORATION ACT OF 2003."

To find out who your representative is, just type in your ZIP code at: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

It is likely that the Senate will look to the House in determining how it approaches the fire issue this year and if the bill passes by a large margin it is likely President Bush's Healthy Forests Initiative will become law this year.

The timber industry and the Society of American Foresters are out in full force on on Capitol Hill today pushing the McInnis bill in order to allow themselves free reign to log our National Forests and BLM lands. The biomass industry has joined them in order to obtain the $125 million in subsidies guaranteed to it in the legislation. It is urgent that your Representative hear from you.

DETAILS ON THIS BAD BILL:

The "Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003" (HR 1904) will:

• Cut the Heart out of NEPA. The McInnis bill allows the Forest Service to conduct large-scale, environmentally damaging logging projects without considering any alternatives, including the "no action" alternative or their relative environmental impacts.
• Remove the Public from the Process. The McInnis bill eliminates the statutory right of citizens to appeal Forest Service logging projects.
• Interfere with the Independent Judiciary. The McInnis bill seeks to restrict a core principle of our democracy -- the right of Americans to seek redress in the court for grievances involving the federal government. The bill limits preliminary injunctive relief to 45 days, and forces any U.S court to render a final decision on the merits of a case within 100 days. Finally, the bill seeks an astounding change in American legal standards by requiring courts to give deference to agency findings regarding the balance of harms in deciding whether to enter a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, or a permanent injunction in ANY court challenge where the agency claims the action is necessary to "restore fire-adapted forest or rangelands ecosystems."
• Log the Backcountry rather than Protecting Communities. The McInnis bill promotes logging in threatened and endangered species habitat, allows logging and temporary road building in roadless areas, and gives the Secretary "sole discretion" to log in old growth areas and old growth fire resistant trees -- all under the guise of protection of communities from fire.
• Create New Insect Categorical Exclusion. The McInnis bill creates a new Categorical Exclusion from the National Environmental Policy Act on all Department of Interior and Forest Service lands by authorizing an unlimited number of projects (up to 1,000 acres each) for all lands that the agencies claim are at risk of infestation by certain insects.
• Provide New Logging Subsidies. The McInnis bill would authorize $125 million in subsidies to the biomass industry to log our National Forests.

PLEASE CALL IMMEDIATELY TO STOP THIS LOGGING BILL IN ITS TRACKS! THANK YOU.