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A Logged Forest Is Not A Healthy Forest
Last week, in a politically motivated response to this summer's wildfires, President Bush announced his Healthy Forests Initiative, a plan to weaken environmental safeguards and limit public input in the name of fire prevention.
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Subject: VOTE NO on the "Healthy Forests Initiative"
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
I strongly oppose Senator Larry Craig's (R-Idaho) wildfire plan. This cynical, industry backed plan will not protect communities from fire, but rather will allow timber companies to extract old, large trees from public lands deemed a fire "threat" by industry-friendly administration officials. In addition, Craig's plan will allow for roadbuilding in millions of acres of roadless areas and other remote areas, far from communities at risk. Forest fire fighting and prevention should be concentrated in communities and neighborhoods where people would be most affected by fires.
Senator Craig's plan also calls for waiving the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for thinning and logging projects on 10 million acres. NEPA is the backbone of environmental protective legislation and serves a crucial role by providing federal decision-makers the proper scientific and cultural information needed to make an informed decision about public lands projects. NEPA also allows the public to participate in public lands decisions, which I consider of vital importance. Furthermore, procedures already exist within NEPA for expediting emergency federal projects.
Craig's plan for reducing wildfires does not protect communities or forests and is a simple case of "the cure being worse than the disease." We can protect homes and communities without sacrificing the health of our forest ecosystems.
Scientists, and many policy makers, agree on this point. In fact, the administration endorsed the landmark, collaborative, science-based fire management strategy crafted by the Western Governors' Association last May. All parties who signed the plan, including Secretary of Interior Gale Norton and Agriculture Secretary Ann Venemann, agreed that fire risks could be reduced without any change to existing law.
Senator Craig's plan is expected to appear as an amendment on the Senate Interior Appropriations bill tomorrow. I urgently ask, for the health of our national forests and the safety of communities near forests, that you oppose this amendment.
Thank you for your time and careful consideration on this very important issue.
Sincerely,
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Campaign Launched:
August 28, 2002
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President Bush wants to "streamline" or more accurately rollback the backbone of environmental protections, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which was signed into law in 1970 by President Nixon. Under NEPA federal agencies are required to produce an Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which outlines the details of a project and several alternatives to a proposed project. NEPA requires the EA or EIS to explain the environmental impacts of a proposed project in order to give federal land managers the best scientific information on which they base their decisions concerning our national forests.
The Bush plan would allow logging projects, masked as fire prevention measures to skip the NEPA process, a misguided concept the timber industry and certain members of Congress have been attempting to push through for years. Dismantling NEPA would eliminate the public's opportunity to participate in many federal land projects and remove safeguards that ensure that public lands managers understand what impacts a particular project will have on our increasing threatened wild forests.
While the Bush plan serves as a boon to corporate special interests, it fails to protect communities from fire. Additionally, Bush's plan would open millions of acres of national forest land to logging projects, under the guise of forest fire management.
An effective wildfire policy would address the problem where it exists, in forest communities and neighborhoods, not in remote forest wildlands. Under his plan, President Bush will allow his friends in the timber industry access to large, old trees – which happen to be the most fire resistant trees – located in the remote backcountry, miles away from the nearest community.
Essentially, the President is suggesting that the best way to protect our forests is to log our forests.
We believe that Senators Larry Craig and Pete Domenici, long time friends of the timber industry and foes of NEPA, will introduce a version of President Bush's plan as soon as the Senate returns from the Labor Day holiday. Time is short, and we know many of you are on vacation, but we need to hear from you today! Please, join me right now in telling your Senator that we need responsible forest fire management. Because once our last wild forests are gone, they're gone forever...
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