HURRY!! Please help save America's Forests!

From: Defenders denlines@den.defenders.org of Wildlife
November 09, 2004
DEN Alert: Time is Running Out to Protect America's Forests

Time is Running Out to Protect America's Forests

Dear DEN Activist:

I am writing to you today because we need your help on an important forest issue. The U.S. Forest Service plans to expose 58.5 million now-protected, roadless acres in national forests to logging and mining companies. While growth is important, there are better ways than placing the best habitats for our grizzly bears, wolves, bald eagles, salmon, and other wildlife at risk. Help us deliver one million comments to the U.S. Forest Service

The Bush Administration needs to hear from concerned Americans. Our national forests provide clean drinking water for millions of Americans, breathtaking beauty, backcountry recreation, and irreplaceable habitat for wildlife. Generations of parents have taught their children to pitch a tent, paddle a canoe, and bait a hook in America's forests. But these outdoors traditions, and our wild heritage and wildlife are all at risk.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

The U.S. Forest Service extended its original deadline from September to NOVEMBER 15 to give concerned Americans the opportunity to comment on this plan. Don't pass up this opportunity to send an email to U.S. Forest Service officials to urge them to maintain protections for our forests. Please go to the DEN Action Center at http://www.denaction.org and send an e-mail to the U.S. Forest Service. Comments are due NOVEMBER 18, so please send your message right away.

Thanks for your help.

Sincerely,

Robert Dewey
Vice President, Government Relations
Defenders of Wildlife

 

BACKGROUND:
The U.S. Forest Service's final proposal to undermine the Roadless Area Conservation Rule was published on Friday, July 16, 2004 and would allow state governors to decide for themselves which roadless areas in national forests should be protected in their states and which should
not. And, the proposal allows the Forest Service to override a governor's decision if the governor decides to protect more roadless forests in his or her state than the Forest Service wants.

National forests belong to all Americans, but this proposal delegates management of national forests to state governors instead of the U.S. Forest Service. Few, if any, governors are likely to spend their limited resources asking the Forest Service to protect these remaining wild areas when they suspect the Administration may be influenced by the timber industry.

Defenders of Wildlife is a leading national conservation organization recognized as one of the nation's most progressive advocates for wildlife and habitat and known for its effective leadership on saving endangered species such as brown bears and gray wolves. Defenders advocates new approaches to wildlife conservation that protect species before they become endangered. Founded in 1947, Defenders is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with more than 475,000 members and supporters.

Forests

Help Expose Victoria's Dirty Secret

Victoria's Secret is a heavy user of paper, mailing more than 395 million catalogs a year. Yet hardly any recycled paper is used, and instead the company buys from paper industries driving the destruction of forests and the conversion of forests and wetlands to intensively managed tree farms. Two years of investigative research has revealed a direct link between Victoria's Secret catalogs and the destruction of endangered forests in the Canadian Boreal.

Over twelve times the size of California, the California Boreal accounts for one quarter of the Earth's remaining intact forests and is a critical regulator of global climate. Victoria's Secret's paper usage is contributing to the demise of threatened mountain and woodland caribou herds in places like the Alberta foothills. Forests of the southern United States are also threatened. They are home to incredibly diverse natural forests and the richest temperate freshwater ecosystem in the world, yet 6 million acres of the South's forests are logged every year, primarily to make paper that ends up with companies like Victoria's Secret.

ForestEthics has launched a campaign against Victoria's Secret and its parent company Limited Brands for their leading role in forest destruction. The launch marks the beginning of actions and demonstrations by grassroots environmental groups across the United States and the launch of an advertising campaign and website (www.victoriasdirtysecret.net challenging the retailer to stop using paper coming from the world's last remaining endangered forests and switch to high post-consumer recycled paper. The campaign is asking Victoria's Secret to:

• End purchases from any company that is not identifying and halting logging in Endangered Forests in the Canadian Boreal;
• Maximize post-consumer recycled fiber in catalogs (achieve 50% post-consumer recycled in five years);
  
• Ensure that all suppliers are shifting to Forest Stewardship Council certification; and
  
• End the use of any forest products from other endangered forests, like key areas of the Southern United States.

TAKE ACTION: Go to www.VictoriasDirtySecret.net and send a letter to the CEO of Limited Brands, Victoria's Secret parent company by clicking on the TAKE ACTION button.

Visit the ACTION CENTER to learn more about getting involved in the campaign. To sign up for the campaign, ask questions, or request materials you can contact ForestEthics at catalogs@forestethics.org or call 1-800-725-0087.

For more information contact Joshua Martin, Joshua@forestethics.org, 828-251-1184; Shana Ortman, shana@forestethics.org, 415-863-4563, ext. 302; or Liz Butler, liz@forestethics.org, 301-864-3244.

Hi Friends,

Did you attend the October 1 Honor the Earth / Indigo Girls benefit concert and NOT get a yellow action card?

Were you unable to attend the concert but want to support the Skull Valley Goshutes in their opposition to Private Fuel Storage's nuclear waste dump on Goshute land?

See below or click on the link to get a copy of the action card! http://www.honorearth.org/actnow/current.html

Sign the letter and send it on to the NRC.

Thanks for your support!
Honor the Earth Staff and Volunteers

Nils Diaz, Chairman
Edward McGaffigan, Jr. and Jeffrey S. Merrifield, Commissioners
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
11555 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD 20852-2738

Dear Commissioners,

I strongly urge you to deny Private Fuel Storage (PFS) a license to construct a nuclear waste dump on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation in Utah. The decision to place the spent nuclear fuel on the reservation will threaten both the environment and human lives. The potential for a
military aircraft crash into the dump and the absence of any plan to remove the nuclear waste at the end of PFS's lease agreement leave room for too many potential catastrophes.

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board decision to deny PFS its license to begin construction of the dump due to the risk of accidents involving F-16 fighter jets should be upheld. The Genesis satellite crash into the Utah Test and Training Range on September 8, 2004 should be enough
proof that accidents do happen. Transporting the radioactive waste across the country is not the answer to our problems. This waste will pass by the homes, schools and workplaces of over one-third of the country's population. Please deny PFS's license request. The Skull Valley Goshute Reservation is neither a safe nor just solution!


Sincerely,


Signature
Name
Address
City, State Zip

Sign-on: ACTION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE *

From: Orin Langelle langelle@sover.net
To: Global Justice Ecology Project info@globaljusticeecology.org
10/19/04

Global Justice Ecology Project's
http://globaljusticeecologyproject.org

Anne Petermann was in Durban, South Africa for the meeting that called for this global grassroots movement against climate change.

To sign on to the Climate Justice Now! statement please send an email to info@fern.org

CLIMATE JUSTICE NOW!
A CALL FOR PEOPLES' ACTION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE

Representatives from organizations and peoples' movements from around the globe came together in Durban, South Africa October 4-7, 2004 to discuss realistic avenues for addressing climate change. The group emerged from the meeting with this call for a global grassroots movement against climate change.

Twelve years ago governments took serious note of and agreed to address the issue of global warming. They signed and ratified the Convention on Climate Change. Five years later, they agreed on the Kyoto Protocol, which was to establish concrete commitments to reduce fossil fuel emissions from Northern countries. This Protocol has yet to come into effect .

The emission reductions that the Kyoto Protocol established for industrialized countries were only 5.2% below 1990 levels-which most scientists agree is completely inadequate to effectively address global warming. Even these inadequate targets are being evaded through schemes such as carbon trading including the establishment of carbon "sinks" like monoculture tree plantations-mainly in the Global South. These schemes are being embraced by the very entities that are destroying the Earth. Meanwhile destruction of true carbon reservoirs like native forests continues unabated, leading to yet more releases of greenhouse gases.

For this reason, the Durban Group calls on grassroots activists and organizations around the world to stand up for real action on climate change.

Communities disproportionately impacted by climate change and the false "solutions" put forward by the Kyoto Protocol (including carbon sink projects and continued fossil fuel exploration, extraction and burning) include small island states, whose very existence is threatened, as well as indigenous peoples, the poor and the marginalized, particularly women, children and the elderly around the world.

The refusal of governments and international financial institutions like the World Bank to force corporations to phase out use of fossil fuels, and which in fact encourage accelerated use of increasingly limited fossil fuel stocks, is causing more and more military conflicts around the world, magnifying social and environmental injustice.

Just as peoples' movements are rising up around the world against the privatization of water and biodiversity, so must we rise up against the privatization of the air, which is being promoted through the establishment of a massive "carbon market."

If we are to avert a climate crisis, drastic reductions in fossil fuel investment and use are inescapable, as is the protection of remaining native forests. The current flawed approach of international negotiations must be met by the active participation of a global movement of Northern and Southern peoples to take the climate back into their hands.

We therefore call on activists, organizations and communities to sign on to The Durban Declaration on Carbon Trading (below) that emerged from the Durban meeting and join this growing global movement.

To sign on to The Durban Declaration on Carbon Trading statement please send an email to info@fern.org

The Durban Declaration on Carbon Trading As representatives of people's movements and independent organisations, we reject the claim that carbon trading will halt the climate crisis. This crisis has been caused more than anything else by the mining of fossil fuels and the release of their carbon to the oceans, air, soil and living things. This excessive burning of fossil fuels is now jeopardising Earth's ability to maintain a liveable climate.

Governments, export credit agencies, corporations and international financial institutions continue to support and finance fossil fuel exploration, extraction and other activities that worsen global warming, such as forest degradation and destruction on a massive scale, while dedicating only token sums to renewable energy. It is particularly disturbing that the World Bank has recently defied the recommendation of its own Extractive Industries Review which calls for the phasing out of World Bank financing for coal, oil and gas extraction.

We denounce the further delays in ending fossil fuel extraction that are being caused by corporate, government and United Nations' attempts to construct a "carbon market", including a market trading in "carbon sinks".

History has seen attempts to commodify land, food, labour, forests, water, genes and ideas. Carbon trading follows in the footsteps of this history and turns the earth's carbon-cycling capacity into property to be bought or sold in a global market. Through this process of creating a new commodity - carbon - the Earth's ability and capacity to support a climate conducive to life and human societies is now passing into the same corporate hands that are destroying the climate.

People around the world need to be made aware of this commodification and privatization and actively intervene to ensure the protection of the Earth's climate.

Carbon trading will not contribute to achieving this protection of the Earth's climate. It is a false solution which entrenches and magnifies social inequalities in many ways:

• The carbon market creates transferable rights to dump carbon in the air, oceans, soil and vegetation far in excess of the capacity of these systems to hold it. Billions of dollars worth of these rights are to be awarded free of charge to the biggest corporate emitters of greenhouse gases in the electric power, iron and steel, cement, pulp and paper, and other sectors in industrialised nations who have caused the climate crisis and already exploit these systems the most. Costs of future reductions in fossil fuel use are likely to fall disproportionately on the public sector, communities, indigenous peoples and individual taxpayers.

• The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), as well as many private sector trading schemes, encourage industrialised countries and their corporations to finance or create cheap carbon dumps such as large-scale tree plantations in the South as a lucrative alternative to reducing emissions in the North. Other CDM projects, such as hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) -reduction schemes, focus on end-of pipe technologies and thus do nothing to reduce the impact of fossil fuel industries' impacts on local communities. In addition, these projects dwarf the tiny volume of renewable energy projects which constitute the CDM's sustainable development window-dressing.

• Impacts from fossil-fuel industries and other greenhouse-gas producing industries such as displacement, pollution, or climate change, are already disproportionately felt by small island states, coastal peoples, indigenous peoples, local communities, fisherfolk, women, youth, poor people, elderly and marginalized communities. CDM projects intensify these impacts in several ways. First, they sanction continued exploration for, and extraction, refining and burning of fossil fuels. Second, by providing finance for private sector projects such as industrial tree plantations, they appropriate

  land, water and air already supporting the lives and livelihoods of local communities for new carbon dumps for Northern industries.

• The refusal to phase out the use of coal, oil and gas, which is further entrenched by carbon trading, is also causing more and more military conflicts around the world, magnifying social and environmental injustice. This in turn diverts vast resources to military budgets which could otherwise be utilized to support economies based on renewable energies and energy efficiency.

  In addition to these injustices, the internal weaknesses and contradictions of carbon trading are in fact likely to make global warming worse rather than "mitigate" it. CDM projects, for instance, cannot be verified to be "neutralizing" any given quantity of fossil fuel extraction and burning. Their claim to be able to do so is increasingly dangerous because it creates the illusion that consumption and production patterns, particularly in the North, can be maintained without harming the climate.

  In addition, because of the verification problem, as well as a lack of credible regulation, no one in the CDM market is likely to be sure what they are buying. Without a viable commodity to trade, the CDM market and similar private sector trading schemes are a total waste of time when the world has a critical climate crisis to address.

  In an absurd contradiction the World Bank facilitates these false, market-based approaches to climate change through its Prototype Carbon Fund, the BioCarbon Fund and the Community Development Carbon Fund at the same time it is promoting, on a far greater scale, the continued exploration for, and extraction and burning of fossil fuels - many of which are to ensure increased emissions of the North.

  In conclusion, 'giving carbon a price' will not prove to be any more effective, democratic, or conducive to human welfare, than giving genes, forests, biodiversity or clean rivers a price.

  We reaffirm that drastic reductions in emissions from fossil fuel use are a pre-requisite if we are to avert the climate crisis. We affirm our responsibility to coming generations to seek real solutions that are viable and truly sustainable and that do not sacrifice marginalized communities.

  We therefore commit ourselves to help build a global grassroots movement for climate justice, mobilize communities around the world and pledge our solidarity with people opposing carbon trading on the ground.

  Signed 10 October 2004
  Glenmore Centre, Durban, South Africa

  DURBAN MEETING SIGNATORIES

  Indigenous Environmental Network
  Carbon Trade Watch
  FERN
  FASE-ES, Brasil
  Global Justice Ecology Project, USA
  National Forum of Forest People And Forest workers (NFFPFW), India
  Patrick Bond, Professor, University of KwaZulu Natal School of Development Studies, South Africa
  SinksWatch, UK
  Siosiomagg, Samoa
  Sustainable Energy & Economy Network, USA

  See http://www.sinkswatch.org for up-to-date list of Durban meeting signatories

  SUPPORTING SIGNATORIES

  See http://www.sinkswatch.org for up-to-date list of supporting signatories
  To sign on to the statement please send an email to info@fern.org

  _______________________________

  Orin Langelle, Co-Director Global Justice Ecology Project P.O. Box 412 Hinesburg, VT 05461 +1-802-482-2689 ph/fax +1-802-578-6980 mobile langelle@sover.net http://www.globaljusticeecology.org

  Storm Waters, Liaison Coordinator Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers Box 7941 Missoula, MT 59807 406-728-0867 cmcr@wildrockies.org storm@wildrockies.org www.wildrockies.org/cmcr

  "For the Earth is old and grey; My little darling-withered away..."                                                  F.M

Please Sign the Endangered Species Act Pledge

Here's a quick and easy way to pledge your support of protections for the bald eagle, gray wolf, salmon and other threatened and endangered species. Please take a moment to sign the Endangered Species Act Legacy pledge. You can do so at the Endangered Species Coalition website at: http://www.stopextinction.org/petitions/Petition.cfm?petitionID=8

Or reply to Daniel Hall at wafcfbp@americanlands.org with your name, address and email.  If you are signing on as part of an organization, send your title and name of organization.

We hope that thousands of Americans will sign the pledge to support the Endangered Species Act and oppose rollbacks to protections for endangered species and their habitat.

If you have already signed on, thank you very much.

Please also consider sending the pledge to your friends, colleagues, and members.

Thank you for your help to protect endangered species.

ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT LEGACY PLEDGE:

WHEREAS, the United States has a long and proud tradition of respect for the Earth’s wildlife and natural resources, and

WHEREAS, we have a responsibility to our children and future generations to be good stewards of our environment and to leave behind a legacy of protecting endangered species and the special places they call home, and

WHEREAS, the strength and vitality of the human environment is inextricably linked with the health of all species and the places they live, and

WHEREAS, species’ extinction and habitat destruction are a serious threat to our own welfare. For example, nature is the source for most of our commonly-prescribed medicines and the loss of species could mean the loss of life-saving drugs, and

WHEREAS, we have a responsibility to use the best available science to ensure we protect this legacy for future generations, and

WHEREAS, for over 30 years, the Endangered Species Act has served as the nation's safety net for wildlife, saving hundreds of plants and animals from extinction, putting hundreds more on the path to recovery, and safeguarding the habitats on which they all depend,

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, PLEDGE to uphold the Endangered Species Act so it may continue to protect our plants and animals and the special places they live from the finality of extinction.

Sign the Endangered Species Act Legacy pledge at: http://www.stopextinction.org/petitions/Petition.cfm?petitionID=8

BACKGROUND ON THE PLEDGE:

The Endangered Species Act is a safety net for our nation’s wildlife, fish and plants on the brink of extinction. For over 30 years, it has provided critical protections for endangered species and the places where they live. Unfortunately, the Endangered Species Act, and the protections it provides for our nation’s endangered fish, plants, and wildlife, has been under constant assault from both Congress and the Bush Administration in recent months and is facing its most serious threats in its 30 year history.

Despite the fact that the Endangered Species Act has been one of the nation’ s bedrock environmental laws since 1973 and, according to a recent poll, 90 percent of U.S. voters recognize the importance of providing a safety net for wildlife, plants, and fish that are on the brink of extinction, the opponents of strong endangered species protections seem to be winning the messaging war. We know better, the American public supports a strong Endangered Species Act.

With this Representative Dingell, an endangered species champion who helped write the original Endangered Species Act in 1973, has created an Endangered Species Act Legacy pledge. Conservation organizations are working to get thousands of concerned citizens across the country to sign this pledge and let the media and our elected officials know that we need to be good stewards of the environment by protecting endangered species and the special places they call home.

When various threats arise to the Endangered Species Act, in the form of legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives or the Senate or negative administrative actions, the conservation community will be able to take the list of pledge supporters to members of Congress and let them know that their constituents support strong protections for our nation’s endangered fish, plants and wildlife.

BACKGROUND ON CURRENT THREATS
TO THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT:

Two bills were passed by the House Resources Committee passed earlier this year: H.R. 1662, “Endangered Species Data Quality Act of 2004” (formerly the “Sound Science for the Endangered Species Act Planning Act”), and H.R. 2933, the “Critical Habitat Reform Act of 2003.” Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA) is hoping to bring these highly damaging bills to the House floor yet this year. Congress is expected to return to Washington after the elections for a “lame duck” session during which we all will have to be ever vigilant. Moreover, even if these bills do not make it to the House floor this year, you can bet that Mr. Pombo and his allies will make a big push to get them passed in 2005.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration has been busy slicing away at Endangered Species Act protections outside of Congress. From new pesticide and forest regulations that try to exempt the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Forest Service from the important checks and balance of getting approval from wildlife experts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for projects that may harm listed species (as required by the ESA) to overwhelming politicization of science in regard to wildlife listing and critical habitat designations, this administration has shown it is no friend to endangered fish, plants, and wildlife.

For more detail on threats to endangered species and the Endangered Species Act, see: http://www.americanlands.org/issues.php?subsubNo=1086834301
and http://www.stopextinction.org./

From: tanyahayeslee@netscape.net
Friday, October 08, 2004

Hopis to march on Council chambers: Black Mesa Trust press release

PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Vernon Masayesva (928) 734-9255; (928) 213-9009

Grassroots Hopis set to march on Council chambers

KYKOTSMOVI, (Ariz.), October 8, 2004-Black Mesa Trust will lead grassroots Hopis in a march to the Hopi Tribal Council chambers in Kykotsmovi on October 18 at 10 a.m. Marchers will deliver a "Save Hopi Water" petition asking the Council to suspend all discussions with Peabody Coal Company until ethical questions regarding the actions of the attorney who represented Hopi in the original coal and water lease negotiations back in the 1960s are addressed. New evidence clearly shows that the Hopis' attorney was also working for Peabody.

The petition reads, in part:

"[Group Executive for Peabody's Southwest Operations,] John Wasik, in a letter to Black Mesa Trust, dated August 2, 2004, acknowledged that John Boyden did do work for Peabody in the 1960s, but as he explained, the work was done 'after' the coal lease negotiations were approved.

"[However,] in November 1967, Boyden wrote a 'Personal and Confidential' statement of work to Peabody 'for work done to date.' The statement of work went back three years to 1964 during the height of coal lease negotiations..

"Coal lease negotiations between Hopi and Peabody started on August 5, 1963, and continued through 1964 and 1965. Hopi Tribal Council approved the coal lease with Peabody on May 16, 1966."

In the late 1960s, the Department of the Interior opened an investigation into Boyden's actions, which it abandoned in 1985 for lack of evidence. In that year, the Hopi Tribal Council retained counsel to investigate the same allegations. That law firm, without access to the information cited above, which came to light in the mid 1990s, nonetheless said that DOI's conclusion was "unconvincing."

This is the investigation that Black Mesa Trust is asking the Council to reopen.

The petition reads, "Boyden's conduct most certainly opens up questions as to the validity of the original lease and the 1978 amendment, thereby exposing them to challenge. Therefore, Black Mesa Trust hereby petitions you to promptly reopen the investigation into Boyden's conduct during the 1960s. The Hopi Tribe needs to do this to ensure the validity of the leases."

Black Mesa Trust strongly objects to the new mining permit application that Peabody submitted to the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement last February. Under the terms of the new application, Peabody retains its unlimited rights to N-aquifer water secured for the coal company by Boyden in the mid 1960s, and proposes to use up to 3,600 acre feet a year of N-aquifer water as a back-up supply for C-aquifer water, should the proposal to use the C-aquifer to supply water for the coal slurry pipeline from Black Mesa to Mohave Generating Station be implemented.

The petition concludes, "We suggest you begin by hiring independent experts on legal ethics. Pending the outcome of the ethics inquiry, the Chairman should be directed to suspend all negotiations with Peabody. Thirty-eight years ago we were deceived into selling our coal and water at unconscionably low prices ($1.67 per acre foot for water!), based on a questionable lease.

"[We] hope you can take time to think about this and do the right thing for the sake of future generations who will inherit a land with vastly depleted resources. This status quo cannot and should not be allowed to continue. We hope you will act favorably on our petition."

Black Mesa Trust Executive Director Vernon Masayesva said, "We will march to the Tribal chambers in a quiet and dignified way to deliver the signatures of hundreds of Hopis who want Peabody pumping to end immediately. The Hopi Tribal Council has not taken a position. Their silence is sending the message that they are supporting use of the N-aquifer as back-up water to C-aquifer.

"If Council does not let us into the chambers, which is the house of all Hopi, we will politely leave the petitions on the doorsteps to our house," he added.

For more information regarding Black Mesa Trust, visit http://www.blackmesatrust.org.

"Comments Needed on Roadless Protection"

Bush Administration Cedes Comment Period Extension!

Let's Get A Million Comments In for Roadless Protection

Comment Packet and National Events

The Bush administration has extended the comment period on the new Roadless Rule to November 15, 2004! We have set an ambitious goal of 1 million comments in order to send a clear and powerful message that we will not tolerate the Bush administration giving our National Forests away to the timber, mining and oil industries. Keep writing to help reach this goal!!!

Please go to the American:
www.americanlands.org/issues.php?subsubNo=1085518143&article=109 2416869 Lands Roadless Comment Drive Organizing Action Tool-Kit to view sample comment letters, sample letters to the editor, a sample editorial board memo, an analysis of the new Bush roadless rule and a link to the new rule. We need to keep the pressure on the administration by generating more comments and media attention on the new Roadless Rule.

On September 14, 2004 there are going to be a number of events across the country in order to demonstrate that the American public resoundingly rejects the Bush administration's efforts to repeal the 2001 Roadless Rule. If you haven't already linked into these activities (information below) please consider doing so. If you are not participating in a local event in your area consider writing a letter to the editor on September 14, 2004 expressing your disappointment with the Bush administration for attempting to repeal the Roadless Rule.

The extension of the comment period past the national election is a clear indication that the roadless issue has become a problem for the Bush administration. On September 14th events are being organized in DC and around the country to continue to call attention to the Bush administration's plan to log our remaining roadless wild forests. Groups are encouraged to participate in events that are already being planned as well as organize other press events or rallies to demonstrate broad public support for roadless area protection, calling attention to your states' contribution to the goal of 1 million comments.

Events are being planned in the following states: AZ, TX, WV, TN, FL, NM, NV, NH, ME, PA, IL, MI, MN, AR, NC, ID, CO, OR, WA, WI, NJ, CA, LA, VA, AK.

To get involved contact Seth Horstmeyer, shorstmeyer@net.org, 202-887-8800.

Anne Martin
National Field Director
American Lands Alliance
423 W. First Ave. Suite 240
Spokane, WA 99201
Phone: 509-624-5657
email: annem@americanlands.org
http://www.americanlands.org/

***Come Visit American Lands Alliance's New Website!***
Newly updated and retooled, www.americanlands.org is an in-depth, extensive resource for forest activists. American Lands Alliance, working to protect wildlife and wild places.

Bush Administration Guts Roadless Area Conservation Rule

To: All Activists
From: American Lands Alliance
Date: July 12, 2004

Today the Bush administration announced that they would move forward with a new proposed Roadless Rule and issued an interim directive in the meantime until the new rule becomes final. The Administration stated that the interim rule would be in effect for the next 18 months. There will be a 60-day comment period on the new proposed rule once it is published in the Federal Register this week. The Bush administration has already exempted Alaska's Tongass National Forest from the Roadless Rule.

As expected, the administration is not modifying the Roadless Area Conservation Rule they are ending the roadless rule in its entirety. In a press release issued by the Administration, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Venneman stated, "Our actions today advance President Bush's commitment to cooperatively conserving roadless areas on national forests." However, despite all of today's greenwashing, the Administration is not going to be conserving roadless areas.

Basically, the new rule will set up a new petition process where Governors with roadless areas in their States will decide what areas they would like to see protected and then they must petition the Department of Agriculture for that protection. Then, it is the discretion of Mark Rey, Under Secretary of Agriculture, and former timber industry lobbyist, whether or not the Administration will allow those areas to be protected. Allowing Governors to "opt-in" for roadless protection essentially eliminates national protections for roadless areas. Pro-development states like Idaho and Alaska could also petition the administration to actually weaken protections. Without the Roadless Rule in place, decisions on road building and logging would once again go back to forest plans.

Take Action: Please take some time to write a letter to your local paper protesting the Administration's assault on the Roadless Rule. Below are some talking points and a sample letter to the editor (LTE). Please use the talking points below to help write your own letter or use the sample LTE below. For tips about how to write and place a LTE please go to: http://www.americanlands.org/August Organizing Packet Documents/LTE (Resource Media Training Manual).pdf

Helpful Links:
The proposed rule will be published in the Federal Register this week and the draft is available at http://roadless.fs.fed.us/documents/id_07/2004_07_12_state_petition_proposed_rule.html

The interim directive can be found at http://roadless.fs.fed.us/documents/id_07/07_08_04_draft_id_1920_2004-1.pdf

Talking Points

• The Bush administration is not modifying the roadless area conservation rule they are ending the roadless rule in its entirety

• The day this new policy goes into effect not a single acre of the forests protected under the roadless area conservation rule will be left protected.

• There is a conflict in the federal courts about the legal standing of the roadless area conservation rule with some judges ruling against it and some judges ruling in favor of it. The Department of Agriculture is not required by the pending litigation to act on the roadless area conservation rule.

• The new policy is a direct attempt to short-circuit the legal appeals pending in the courts by officially vacating the roadless rule administratively.

• The Administration is using the pending litigation as a smokescreen to renege on their May 4, 2001 public promise to "uphold" the roadless area conservation rule to protect these last remaining wild areas of the National Forests.

• This action is nothing more than the Bush Administration giving away the remaining 30 percent of the National Forest lands left unprotected to the timber industry.

• Protecting the lands within the National Forests is supposed to be the job of the Forest Service not the job of state governors who simply don't have have the staff or expertise.

• The substitute policy announced by the Administration is entirely unworkable and they know it. Few, if any, Governors are going to spend their limited resources and political capital asking the Forest Service to protect these remaining wild areas when they know at the end of this new process Mark Rey, a former timber industry lobbyist, gets to make the final decision on their request as the Under Secretary in charge at USDA.

Sample Letter to the Editor

Lisa Dix
National Forest Program Director
American Lands Alliance
ldix@americanlands.org
Ph: 202-547-9105; Fax: 202-547-9213

Bush Administration Guts Roadless Area Conservation Rule

To: All Activists
From: American Lands Alliance
Date: July 12, 2004

Today the Bush administration announced that they would move forward with a new proposed Roadless Rule and issued an interim directive in the meantime until the new rule becomes final. The Administration stated that the interim rule would be in effect for the next 18 months. There will be a 60-day comment period on the new proposed rule once it is published in the Federal Register this week. The Bush administration has already exempted Alaska's Tongass National Forest from the Roadless Rule.

As expected, the administration is not modifying the Roadless Area Conservation Rule they are ending the roadless rule in its entirety. In a press release issued by the Administration, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Venneman stated, "Our actions today advance President Bush's commitment to cooperatively conserving roadless areas on national forests." However, despite all of today's greenwashing, the Administration is not going to be conserving roadless areas.

Basically, the new rule will set up a new petition process where Governors with roadless areas in their States will decide what areas they would like to see protected and then they must petition the Department of Agriculture for that protection. Then, it is the discretion of Mark Rey, Under Secretary of Agriculture, and former timber industry lobbyist, whether or not the Administration will allow those areas to be protected. Allowing Governors to "opt-in" for roadless protection essentially eliminates national protections for roadless areas. Pro-development states like Idaho and Alaska could also petition the administration to actually weaken protections. Without the Roadless Rule in place, decisions on road building and logging would once again go back to forest plans.

Take Action: Please take some time to write a letter to your local paper protesting the Administration's assault on the Roadless Rule. Below are some talking points and a sample letter to the editor (LTE). Please use the talking points below to help write your own letter or use the sample LTE below. For tips about how to write and place a LTE please go to: http://www.americanlands.org/August Organizing Packet Documents/LTE (Resource Media Training Manual).pdf

Helpful Links:
The proposed rule will be published in the Federal Register this week and the draft is available at http://roadless.fs.fed.us/documents/id_07/2004_07_12_state_petition_proposed_rule.html

The interim directive can be found at http://roadless.fs.fed.us/documents/id_07/07_08_04_draft_id_1920_2004-1.pdf

Talking Points

• The Bush administration is not modifying the roadless area conservation rule they are ending the roadless rule in its entirety

• The day this new policy goes into effect not a single acre of the forests protected under the roadless area conservation rule will be left protected.

• There is a conflict in the federal courts about the legal standing of the roadless area conservation rule with some judges ruling against it and some judges ruling in favor of it. The Department of Agriculture is not required by the pending litigation to act on the roadless area conservation rule.

• The new policy is a direct attempt to short-circuit the legal appeals pending in the courts by officially vacating the roadless rule administratively.

• The Administration is using the pending litigation as a smokescreen to renege on their May 4, 2001 public promise to "uphold" the roadless area conservation rule to protect these last remaining wild areas of the National Forests.

• This action is nothing more than the Bush Administration giving away the remaining 30 percent of the National Forest lands left unprotected to the timber industry.

• Protecting the lands within the National Forests is supposed to be the job of the Forest Service not the job of state governors who simply don't have have the staff or expertise.

• The substitute policy announced by the Administration is entirely unworkable and they know it. Few, if any, Governors are going to spend their limited resources and political capital asking the Forest Service to protect these remaining wild areas when they know at the end of this new process Mark Rey, a former timber industry lobbyist, gets to make the final decision on their request as the Under Secretary in charge at USDA.

Sample Letter to the Editor

Lisa Dix
National Forest Program Director
American Lands Alliance
ldix@americanlands.org
Ph: 202-547-9105; Fax: 202-547-9213