Bush Administration destroys Roadless Conservation Rule
The Bush Administration has announced its plan to overturn the
Roadless Area Conservation Rule, the landmark 2001 initiative to
protect nearly 60 million acres of roadless land on our national
forests from new roads, logging and oil drilling. In California, the rule
provides safeguards for more than four million acres of pristine roadless
forests.
Repeatedly, California Wilderness Coalition members have risen in defense of the
roadless rule. We need you again. Please tell the Forest Service and
Governor Schwarzenegger that you are one of millions of
Americans who want roadless areas protected!
You can send that message immediately from
http://ga1.org/campaign/roadless/inbwdd2riw3e5
Also, we'll forward a copy of your letter to your governor.
More on Bush's National Forest giveaway
The Roadless Area Conservation Rule is a vital tool that ensures that
California's last remaining wild forests are not destroyed before they can be permanently
protected as wilderness. It took decades of research, 600 public hearings, and 1.6
million public comments from people like you to convince the Forest Service to adopt
the Roadless Rule in 2001. Over 97 percent of the public comments coming from California
were in support of the rule.
Despite the overwhelming public support for protecting our last
remaining wild forests, the Bush Administration has been working for three years
to undermine the Roadless Rule. After exempting America's largest National
Forest--Alaska's Tongass--from protection under the rule, they are now planning
to strip safeguards for forests in the continental U.S.-including more than four million
acres in the Tahoe, Angeles, and other national forests throughout California.
The Bush Administration is proposing to replace the Roadless Rule
with a state-by-state petition process that forces governors to ask Forest
Service not to drill, pave, and clearcut our wild forests.
Even at face value, the provision is an
abdication of the federal responsibility to manage our national
forests for all Americans. The Administration casts the
provision as a move toward greater "partnership" with state
governments. We can judge the credibility of that
characterization from what is happening right now on Oregon's
Siskiyou National Forest and Alaska's Tongass.
Ask and you shall receive. Or maybe not
The Governor of Alaska demanded logging in the Tongass. As
noted, the Forest Service eagerly obliged, first by exempting
the Tongass from the original roadless rule, then by preparing
several roadless area sales on the Tongass.
In Oregon, the Forest Service proposed an immense timber sale in
the heart of the Siskiyou National Forest, much of it in
roadless areas that burned during the 2002 Biscuit forest fire.
Oregon's Governor strongly opposed logging the roadless areas,
citing the irreparable damage to the Siskiyou's wilderness
values. The Forest Service has ignored his opposition and
recently decided to move forward with the sale.
In California, it is not clear yet which direction Governor Schwarzenegger
will weigh in, while the Forest Service has already proposed salvage logging in several
roadless areas across the state. That's why it's very important that you send a copy of
your letter to Gov. Schwarzenegger!
What you can do
Please take a moment today to help us fight this outlandish attack
on our forests. Tell the Forest Service you oppose road-building and commercial
logging within the 58.5 million acres of roadless land on our national forests.
You can send that message immediately from
http://ga1.org/campaign/roadless/inbwdd2riw3e5
You can draw from the sample below if you'd prefer to write your
own letter. We hope you will: your thoughts in your words are
always the most effective! And please send a copy of your letter
to your governor.
Content Analysis Team Roadless State Petitions
USDA Forest Service
P.O. Box 22190
Salt Lake City, UT 84122
Email: statepetitionroadless@fs.fed.us
Fax: (801) 517-1014
Please send a copy to California's Governor:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633
To send an email, please visit:
http://www.govmail.ca.gov
Sample Letter:
Dear Content Analysis Team Roadless State Petitions:
I strongly oppose the Bush administration's proposal to allow
road building and commercial logging within the 58.5 million
acres of National Forest Inventoried Roadless Areas. The
administration should not replace the Roadless Area Conservation
Rule with an ill-conceived state petition process.
Roadless areas are a precious part of our nation's natural
legacy. They provide clean drinking water for hundreds of
communities, undisturbed fish and wildlife habitat and boundless
opportunities for outdoor recreation and spiritual renewal.
I believe the Forest Service should retain and implement the
Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which the Forest Service
adopted in January 2001. The roadless rule is a fair and
balanced policy that provides secure, nationwide protection for
roadless areas. The American public has already clearly
demonstrated that it wants a strong, national policy to protect
national forest roadless areas. The Forest Service received over
2.5 million comments on this issue. More than 90 percent
supported the roadless rule.
The Bush Administration's proposal, on the other hand, would
strip away the roadless rule's safeguards, requiring individual
state governors to petition for roadless area protection. This
state petition scheme is a totally unacceptable abdication of
federal responsibility to manage the national forests for the
long-term benefit of all Americans. These are national forests,
not state forests. They should be managed in accordance with
national laws and public participation, not the views of
individual state Governors who, by definition, cannot consider
the interests of all Americans.
The Administration's proposal would be disastrous for roadless
areas in many states, particularly across the West. In states
such as Alaska and Idaho Governors have made clear that they
would like to use our national forests primarily for logging or
to drill for oil and gas, regardless of other important values
that would suffer from these activities. That approach ignores
the value of pristine, unspoiled lands for the American people.
I earnestly urge you to protect these values for present and
future generations by retaining and implementing the Roadless
Area Conservation Rule.
Sincerely,
(Your name and address)
More information
You can find more details on the Administration's proposed roadless
rule and related topics at these links:
Roadless Chronology
http://www.wilderness.org/OurIssues/Roadless/chronology.cfm
Analysis of Proposed Rule
http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/upload/Roadless_StatePetition_Analysis.pdf
Biscuit Timber Sale Analysis
http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/upload/Biscuit_FEIS_analysis.pdf
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Just three miles off of Interstate 80, 
