Help Protect America's Roadless Forests and Wildlife Habitat
12/7/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Protect America's Roadless Forests and Wildlife Habitat
Source: Defenders of Wildlife
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 7, 1999
Please take a minute and help protect our national forests and the
wildlife that live there. More than half of the National Forest
System has been impacted by logging, mining, oil and gas leasing, and
other industrial uses. Fortunately, 30% of national forest land is
still wild and without roads, which fragment wildlife habitat into
smaller, less useful sections. However, these roadless areas are
currently unprotected and subject to potentially damaging industrial
activities.
The U.S. Forest Service is currently accepting public comments by e-
mail from concerned citizens like you on how to best protect the 30%
of our National Forests which are wild and roadless. With your help,
we can strike a balance of both protecting our last remaining
roadless forests and wildlife habitat while also continuing to allow
multiple use activities in our National Forest System.
The National Forest System provides a home to more than 3,000
wildlife and fish species and 10,000 plant species. More than 350
forest- dwelling species are listed as either threatened or
endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
Please take a minute to send a comment letter to the U.S. Forest
Service using the sample letter below. Your comments must be received
NO LATER THAN DECEMBER 20, 1999.
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA THE WEB:
If you have access to the web, simply click on the link below which
will take you to the DEN Action Center web site:
http://www.denaction.org/
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA EMAIL:
If you do not have web access, you can still respond to this alert.
Simply, choose the "reply to sender" option on your email program. Be
sure to include the original message in your reply. Then edit the
letter provided below as you wish and press SEND when you are ready.
We will make sure it is delivered correctly. You must include the
whole letter in your response starting with "==START OF LETTER=="
and ending with "==END OF LETTER==."
We strongly encourage you to personalize the letter provided below by
putting the letter in your own words or adding personal thoughts. A
personalized letter is viewed as more important than a computer
generated one. However, hundreds of unedited letters will still have
a large impact. Therefore, please reply even if you don't have time
to personalize the letter.
==== START OF LETTER - ALERT 2 ==== DO NOT REMOVE THIS MARKER
Dear Forest Service:
I applaud the recent announcement that you will be preparing a
roadless area protection policy. I urge you to protect the 60 million
acres of remaining roadless wild lands in our national forests, which
provide excellent recreational opportunities for millions of
Americans, habitat for wildlife, and clean water for communities.
Forests are extremely important for wildlife. Species like brown
bears, wolves, moose, bald eagles, otters, salmon and migratory song
birds all need wild and protected roadless areas to survive.
I urge you to adopt a policy that:
* Contains strong and effective protection for roadless areas from
all damaging activities, including logging, mining, and off-road
motorized vehicles,
* Provides immediate and permanent protection for ALL roadless areas
1000 acres and larger in all national forests, including the Tongass
National Forest in Alaska, and
* Does not defer protection of roadless areas to the forest planning
process.
We all have a responsibility to protect these roadless and wild
forests for the wildlife that depend on them and for future
generations of Americans. Once they are gone, they are gone forever.
Sincerely,
(Your name and signature will automatically be added here)
==== END OF LETTER - ALERT 2 ==== DO NOT REMOVE THIS MARKER
BACKGROUND
Recently, the U.S. Forest Service announced that it would begin a
comprehensive analysis, including extensive public comment, on how
best to protect 40 million acres of the largest roadless areas in the
National Forest System from damaging new road construction. The
announcement is one step closer to adopting a comprehensive roadless
areas protection policy next year. Conservationists hope the final
policy will permanently protect the remaining 60 million acres of
virgin forests from both roads and timber and oil and gas activities.
Of the 192 million acres managed by the U.S. Forest Service, 52% of
that acreage has been impacted by decades of timber cutting, other
industrial uses and extensive road building. Another 18% is
permanently protected as federally designated wilderness. The
remaining 30% of public forest lands, or about 60 million acres, are
currently wild but unprotected. These forestlands make up "America's
Heritage Forests" and the National Forest System's last untouched
scenic wilderness. Conservation organizations, including Defenders of
Wildlife, are working to protect our remaining forested roadless
areas because they provide fish and wildlife habitat vital to
endangered species and to maintaining our nation's biological
diversity, our cleanest drinking water and outstanding recreation
opportunities.
For the past few years, the effect of national forest roads on
wildlife and scenic areas have been heatedly debated in Congress. In
total, 377,810 miles of official roads criss-cross our National
Forest System - enough to circle the earth 15 times and eight times
the combined length of the U.S. interstate highway system. Dirt
logging roads, carved through forested wilderness, fragment habitat
for endangered wildlife such as grizzly bears and lynx, introduce
damaging exotic pests and plants and erode causing landslides and
sediment to fill streams, choking fish and aquatic species like
salmon.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Forest Service implemented an 18-month
moratorium on the construction of new roads in some roadless areas
while a comprehensive roadless plan is developed. The moratorium was
a major step forward in moving the Forest Service from an agency that
simply sells timber to one that manages for multiple uses (i.e.,
timber, recreation, conservation etc.). However, the moratorium,
which is expected to expire in October 2000, specifically exempts 15
million acres of national forests, including the vast old growth
forests of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska's Tongass National
Forest.
Conservationists have consistently maintained that any roadless
protection plan must include five elements. The plan must: (1) apply
to all National Forests and not exempt controversial areas like
Alaska's Tongass National Forest (2) protect National Forest roadless
areas from not only new road construction but also from other
activities such as helicopter logging and oil and gas activities (3)
provide permanent protection and include a full environmental
analysis with public participation (4) protect all roadless National
Forest areas larger than 1000 acres and, (5) rely on the best
available science - not politics - in developing a final policy.