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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

ACTION ALERT: Amongst Criticism, Clinton Announces Road Ban

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Archives

http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest Conservation

05/11/00

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

The Clinton administration has announced an under whelming roadless

area plan that ends road construction in 43 million acres of pristine

national forests, but does not include prohibitions on extractive

industries or include the Tongass, the largest national forest. The

Forest Service is now taking public comment on this version of the

roadless area policy. After reading the background information below,

please respond to the action alert and demand that the plan must

protect ALL National Forests immediately, INCLUDING the Tongass, and

that the protections must stop logging, mining and other exploitation.

Failure to strengthen this plan effectively eliminates the last best

chance in the United States to protect large areas of forests in their

natural biological condition. This will prove important for

continental ecological sustainability over the long run.

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

ITEM #1

Title: Clinton Plan Aims to Ban Roads in Pristine Forests

Source: Reuters Copyright 2000

Date: May 9, 2000

Byline: Randy Fabi

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Clinton administration on Tuesday announced

a plan to safeguard 43 million acres of pristine national forests for

nature lovers by banning new roads for mining, logging and other

traffic.

The proposal was criticized by environmental groups, who said it does

not go far enough to protect virgin U.S. land and by the lumber

industry, which contends the lack of roads will hamper forest fire-

fighting.

Some Republican lawmakers in western states also blasted the plan,

predicting a court would eventually throw out the road ban because it

sidestepped any congressional input.

The administration said its action would ensure Americans continue to

have unspoiled areas for hiking, bird-watching, cross country skiing,

horseback riding, hunting, fishing and other nature activities.

``These pristine areas are some of the last wild places in America and

I am firmly committed to preserving them for future generations,''

President Clinton said in a statement.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said the administration aimed

to preserve national forests throughout the United States, including

Montana, Washington state and New Hampshire, from road building, while

still making them available to the public for recreation and nature

enjoyment.

The Forest Service is a federal agency within the U.S. Agriculture

Department.

``As we lose more and more open space to sprawl and development,

Americans increasingly turn to our national forests to experience and

enjoy our shared natural landscape,'' Glickman said.

More than 380,000 miles of roads already exist in American national

forests and many of the roads are in desperate need of repair,

Glickman said.

``It doesn't make sense to build any more new roads into the sensitive

areas when we cannot keep up with maintenance of the roads we already

have,'' Glickman told reporters at a briefing to announce the plan.

The proposal is the culmination of an unprecedented amount of public

interest in the issue since President Clinton promised last autumn to

limit development and asked for suggestions from the public. That

generated a record 365,000 letters, faxes and e-mails to the USDA,

mostly from citizens and environmentalists.

The ban would apply to large parcels of forest land that do not have

roads because of their rugged terrain or environmental sensitivity.

The 43 million acres are about a quarter of the 192 million acres in

the national forest system.

The administration's plan would sharply reduce, by at least 700

million board feet, the amount of timber harvested from the pristine

areas over the next five years, the USDA said.

That is still a relatively small amount compared with total U.S.

timber sales from national forests of about 3.6 billion board feet

this year. Overall, national forests now provide about five percent of

the nation's timber with the vast majority of supplies imported from

Canada and other nations.

Criticism From All Sides

The proposal found little support from environmental groups, the

forest industry and lawmakers.

Green groups said they were bitterly disappointed with the plan, which

will prohibit road building, but will not end all logging.

``No one option recommended today will provide lasting protection to

our National Forests remaining wild areas,'' Sierra Club executive

director Carl Pope said in a statement.

Environmentalists also criticized the plan for failing to protect the

nation's largest national forest, Alaska's Tongass National Forest.

The proposal delays any decision until 2004 on whether to ban road

building there.

``Leaving the Tongass out of a final forest protection plan would be

like leaving the Grand Canyon out of the National Park System,'' said

Gene Karpinski, director of U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

The USDA said that with 80 percent of the Tongass National Forest

already protected from road building, local authorities should decide

the future of the rest of the forest.

The forest industry also expressed dismay with the proposal, saying it

did not follow sound scientific principles and would lead to

devastating forest fires.

``In an act that confounds both science and common sense, the

Clinton/Gore administration has condemned our national forest system

to a future of neglect,'' said W. Henson Moore, president of American

Forest and Paper Association. The group is the national trade group of

the forest products industry.

Idaho Republican Larry Craig, chairman of the Senate forestry

subcommittee, said the Clinton administration overstepped its bounds

by mandating the protection of 43 million acres of national forests

without Congressional consent.

``They have made a mockery out of the public process and I am

confident that this proposal ... will be thrown out by the courts,''

Craig said in a statement.

The USDA said there will be more than 300 public hearings throughout

the country in the next two months for the public to comment on the

proposal. A final rule is expected by year-end.

ITEM #2

Title: Roadless Plan Fails to Protect Tongass

Source: "Alaska_Rainforest_Campaign Action List"

<listadmin@akrain.org>

Date: May 11, 2000

Alaska's Tongass National Forest urgently needs your help! The Forest

Service has recommended EXCLUDING the Tongass -- our largest and

wildest national forest -- from President Clinton's plan to protect

the remaining roadless wildlands of our national forests. Any action

on the Tongass issue is deferred until 2004, when the Forest Service

says it will do another study. This recommendation is a dodge that

makes absolutely NO commitment to provide any additional protection

for the Tongass.

Exempting the Tongass leaves a gaping hole in the President's roadless

area protection plan. The Tongass is the heart of the world's largest

remaining expanse of coastal temperate rainforest. Today, even with

new management in place, most Tongass logging will still take place in

remote old-growth wildlands, and efforts to increase cut levels are

underway.

The Forest Service's recommendation must be improved in two ways: * It

must protect ALL National Forests immediately, INCLUDING the Tongass,

and * The protections must stop logging, mining and other

exploitation. The Forest Service's version of the proposal would only

stop new roads. Helicopter logging and other damaging activities that

don't require roads could be permitted.

THIS IS A CRITICAL TIME FOR YOU TO SPEAK UP! The Forest Service is now

taking public comment on its version of the roadless area policy. A

flood of comments and testimony supporting the Tongass could help

persuade President Clinton to improve the Forest Service proposal and

end logging in roadless areas of the Tongass.

Here's how you can help:

*Send an official comment demanding that the new Forest Service policy

protect all remote wildlands of the Tongass and Chugach National

Forests. You can send a free fax directly to the Forest Service from

www.akrain.org or send a personalized letter to USFS Roadless DEIS

Review Team, c/o Alaska Rainforest Campaign, 406 G Street, #209,

Anchorage, AK 99501 or by e-mail to roadlessdeis@fs.fed.us

**Call the President, toll-free, and tell him to protect the Tongass

from roadless area logging: 1-800-663-9566.

***Check the schedule of public hearings [HYPERLINK:

www.roadless.fs.fed.us] to find the one nearest you. Or call Alaska

Rainforest Campaign toll-free at 1-877-873-3725. Be sure to attend and

insist that the President's policy protect the Tongass - immediately -

from logging in roadless areas!

Talking Points:

The proposed alternative in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement

for protecting national forest roadless areas must be improved in two

ways:

1. It must provide IMMEDIATE AND COMPLETE protection for Alaska's

Tongass National Forest and 2. It must protect ALL national forest

roadless areas, including Alaska's Tongass and Chugach, from logging

and other exploitation, as well as new roads.

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