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Stop salvage logging in Duncan Canyon proposed wilderness! Write the Forest Service and Congress before January 6

Recently the Tahoe National Forest released its Final Environmental Impact Statement for the so-called Red Star Restoration Project, a huge salvage logging operation proposed for old-growth forests, roadless areas, and proposed Wilderness areas that were burned in the the Star Fire in August 2001.

The Forest Service has refused to modify this destructive project to accommodate environmental concerns. Instead they have decided to "treat" 5,530 acres of forestland by logging big trees (10" diameter and larger) and removing them from Duncan Canyon, an unprotected wilderness featuring some of the last old-growth red fir in the central Sierra Nevada! The Forest Service folks claim they need to cut these big trees to reduce fire danger, but they've got it backwards. It is the buildup of highly flammable small trees and brush which cause the big fires, but the Forest Service plans to cut down the biggest, most fire-resistant trees instead, so they can sell them.

The plan would log by truck or by helicopter approximately 1,900 acres of the Duncan Canyon Inventoried Roadless Area, a large portion of which is currently proposed for Wilderness designation in the California Wild Heritage Act of 2002. The Forest Service's decision represents a clear lack of dedication to protect and properly manage our last remaining wild places. Their plan also violates the letter and intent of the Sierra Nevada Framework, and it allocates no money for reducing fuels with prescribed burning. In fact, the proposed alternative would increase fire danger by removing the most fire resistant trees, yet leaving behind all of the small woody debris that will start and fuel future fires -- exactly the opposite result that they claim to be attempting to achieve. Damage caused by salvage logging will scar and disqualify the Duncan Canyon Wilderness that is proposed in the California Wild Heritage Act, which so many activists have worked so hard to bring to Congress.

WE MUST OPPOSE this logging plan to preserve the ecological integrity of wilderness in the Duncan Canyon Proposed Wilderness Area and the greater Duncan Canyon Inventoried Roadless Area.

PLEASE WRITE BEFORE JANUARY 6 to your Congress members and the Forest Service, and insist that they protect Duncan Canyon, not exploit it. Points to make include:

--The Forest Service should not allow commercial logging in the Duncan Canyon Inventoried Roadless Area or in the Duncan Canyon Proposed Wilderness Area. The Forest Service's own documents show they can treat the great majority of fire-killed areas without entering the Roadless Area or the Proposed Wilderness at all! The Forest Service's own figures show that 66 percent of the fire-killed areas (>75% mortality) are *outside* the roadless area. Activists' surveys show that it's actually 85 percent outside the roadless area.

-- Removing the largest trees *increases* fire danger -- the Forest Service should cut only small trees and brush to reduce fire risk.

-- The cash-strapped Forest Service should spend its limited "restoration" budget in fire-prone areas near towns and homes, not logging remote wilderness like Duncan Canyon.

Send your letters to:

Your Congressperson in the U.S. House of Representatives.
To find your Representative's address, navigate to: http://www.house.gov/writerep

Senator Barbara Boxer
1700 Montgomery Street, Suite 240
San Francisco, CA 94111
Phone: (415) 403 0100
Fax: (415) 956-6701

Senator Dianne Feinstein
One Post Street, Suite 2450
San Francisco, CA 94104
Phone: (415) 393-0707
Fax: (415) 393-0710

Karen Jones
Tahoe National Forest
22830 Foresthill Road
Foresthill, CA 95631

Please send a copy of your letter to the California Wilderness Coalition, Attention Jason Swartz, 2655 Portage Bay East #5, Davis, CA 95616 so we can track public opposition to this destructive project. For more information on the defense of Duncan Canyon visit our website at www.calwild.org or call Jason Swartz at (530) 758-0380. THANK YOU!