ACTION: Bush Administration unravels Northwest Forest Plan
In April, the Bush Administration released the Draft Supplemental
Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS) for amending the Aquatic
Conservation Strategy (ACS) of the Northwest Forest Plan. The initial
standards and guidelines established in the ACS portion of the
Northwest Forest Plan sought to require federal agencies to maintain,
and when necessary, restore healthy aquatic systems in the watersheds
of the northwest. This conservation strategy ensures that watershed
degrading activities such as road building, logging, and the
associated problems they cause, are minimized to protect the
ecological integrity of a given aquatic system.
The proposed language changes in the Aquatic Conservation Strategy
advanced by the Bush Administration in the DSEIS seek to remove the
enforcement mechanisms of the requirements and guidelines established
in the original Northwest Forest Plan. The revisions to the ACS have
been proposed in order to remove the basic requirement that a land
manager must find that site-specific projects complies with the ACS
guidelines that a project either meet or not prevent the attainment
of ACS objectives. This means that the Bush Administration does not
feel that it is reasonable to force a land manager to refuse to
implement a management action simply because it does not maintain
existing on-th- ground conditions or lead to improved conditions in
general watershed health. In other words, attainment of ACS goals and
objectives should be a recommendation not a requirement. This would
eliminate the teeth from the aquatic conservation measure in the
Northwest Forest Plan and leave the forests, soils, and aquatic
species within the plan area open to the degradation and destruction
that the ACS guidelines were meant to prevent.
What you can do
Please write to the Forest Service and tell them that you do not
support the proposed weakening of the Northwest Forest Plan's Aquatic
Conservation Strategy. Emphasize that you do support the protection
of the Pacific Northwest's streams, aquatic wildlife, and forests.
Send your letter to:
ACS EIS
P.O. Box 221090
Salt Lake City, UT 84122-1090
Fax: (801) 517-1014 (Please address fax to ACS EIS)
Email: acs_comments@fs.fed.us
Your letter must be postmarked by July 10, 2003.
|
Just three miles off of Interstate 80, 
