This Action Alert has expired and can no longer be sent. Many thanks to those who participated.
Outcome
This alert was successful, as we got everything we asked for together! See:
Oregon's Governor Stymies Bush's "Midnight" Forest Raid
Action Alert: Stop Bush's Midnight Raid Upon Oregon's Wild Forests and Rivers
Like his Presidency, it is time for President Bush's looting, plundering, and pillaging of America’s natural beauty, ecological treasures and vital ecosystems to end
By
Forests.org, a project of Ecological Internet
-
November 17, 2008
Share on Facebook
1.) Inform Yourself
NOTE: This is a protest, not a petition, sending emails to many real decision makers on matters vital to the Earth.
Caption:
President Bush has done enough damage already, and must be stopped from destroying Oregon's forest heritage (link)
The Bush Administration is rushing out long-term plans that would convert over 2 million acres of Oregon's national forests, with their towering trees, rushing rivers, and superb wildlife habitat, to empty clearcuts. This is but one aspect of a host of "midnight" regulatory changes in key environmental laws Bush is hastily pushing through without oversight before leaving office. This short-sighted and corrupt give-away to Bush's timber industry cronies will have huge negative impacts upon Oregon and America's biodiversity, water, global climate and prospects for regional and continental ecosystem sustainability.
Much of the forests under siege are in the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the Cascade Crest. The Klamath-Siskiyou region contains some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the continent. There are some 20,000 miles of rivers, where wild Pacific salmon thrive. Ancient old-growth forests are abundant -- home to huge Douglas fir, western hemlock and western red cedar trees -- some well over 400 years old. This wet, rugged environment provides rich habitat for wildlife like elk, black bear and Pacific fishers, as well as endangered species such as spotted owls and marbled murrelets. These forests gain more importance each day as buffers against the impacts of global warming.
In October the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR) for 2.6 million acres of BLM Management forests in western Oregon. The plan increases logging by 400% and would target 100,000 acres of old-growth forests for destruction. The final BLM WOPR also removes these forests from the scientific framework of the Northwest Forest Plan and logs many of the last remaining older forests in western Oregon. It removes stream side buffers that protect clean water and fish, cutting protections for clean water and salmon habitat in half. The WOPR will add 180 million more tons of carbon to the atmosphere compared to no logging (equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 1 million cars driven for 132 years), and result in 1,300 miles of new roads.
An earlier draft of the plan received 30,000 public comments; over 90% asked the BLM to save the remaining older forests, protect clean drinking water, and concentrate forest management on restoration and thinning small trees to protect communities from wildfire. The BLM ignored this common ground, common sense approach to forest management.
Oregon Governor Kulongoski is the only elected official standing between the Bush Administration and western Oregon's forests and salmon. Under law, Governor Kulongoski is allowed a 60-day "consistency review" period that began last week. The governor can propose recommendations for changes to land use plans that must be addressed by the BLM. There is a whole heap of unacceptable elements to the proposal, and by highlighting these and proposing amendments, the final decision will pass to the Obama administration. Please implore the governor to stop the Bush Administration's midnight raid upon Oregon's wild forests and America's future ecological sustainability.
Sample Email Sent
The world is watching Oregon, expecting you to block Bush's forest give-aways
Dear Governor Ted Kulongoski,
I am writing to express deep concern and adamant opposition
to the Bureau of Land Management’s Western Oregon Plan
Revisions (BLM WOPR). I urge you to reject this dangerous
plan completely. New forest policies will accompany the
Obama Presidency. Thus, it would be not be in the public
interest to allow the failed policies of the current
administration to destroy Oregon’s remaining treasured
forests. In your consistency review, please reject the WOPR
since it is contrary to the best interests of Oregonians,
US and world citizens, and the Earth’s climate and
ecological health.
This is a global issue worthy of global protest. As you are
aware, the Klamath-Siskiyou eco-region of southwestern
Oregon is a world-renowned hub of biological diversity. The
BLM WOPR endangers this irreplaceable biological heritage.
It weakens environmental protections, and places salmon,
old growth ecosystems, carbon sequestration, and
communities at risk. Please recall that Northwest forests'
biological richness gave us the anticancer drug Taxol which
has saved thousands of lives and meant billions of dollars
to the pharmaceutical industry.
The new BLM plan increases logging by 400% and would target
100,000 acres of old-growth forests for destruction. The
plan proposed by BLM for western Oregon public forests will
seriously reduce stream side protections, increase
clearcuts, and diminish the careful balance of wildlife
protections developed through the Northwest Forest Plan. It
removes stream side buffers that protect clean water and
fish, cutting protections for clean water and salmon
habitat in half. The WOPR will add 180 million tons of more
carbon to the atmosphere compared to no logging (equivalent
to the greenhouse gas emissions from 1 million cars driven
for 132 years), and result in 1,300 miles of new roads.
Old growth and late successional older natural forests of
the type found in Western Oregon continuously remove large
amounts of carbon, which is stored in wood, soil humus and
peat. When forests are cut, these all decay, releasing the
carbon as carbon dioxide or methane. Subsequently planted
and regenerating secondary forests hold far less carbon.
Allowing these forests to be logged would thus be against
your administration's oft-stated goal of addressing climate
change. A recent EU-commissioned study found that the
global economy is losing more money from the disappearance
of forests than through the current banking crisis. It put
the annual cost of forest loss at trillions.
The public forests of western Oregon provide enormous
benefits to the American people. They are the sources of
clean drinking water for many communities, provide hiking,
fishing, camping, rafting, and other recreational
opportunities not often found on private lands. They
provide key habitat for a wide range of wildlife and fish
species, especially wildlife that are threatened with
extinction such as marbled murrelets, northern spotted
owls, and wild Pacific salmon.
The thinly veiled purpose of the plan is to dramatically
increase industrial logging levels. It is patently obvious
that this is an eleventh hour attempt by a lame-duck
administration to leave a "sweetheart" deal for industrial
forestry. Instead of continuing with the robber-baron
policies of the timber industry, it is time to adopt a
vision for Oregon's forests that protects what little
mature and old growth is left and restoring other forests
degraded by past mismanagement. The WOPR completely fails
at both these critical missions.
Seeing that the voters of the United States have
overwhelmingly rejected the policies of the Bush
administration, it is incumbent on you to prevent this
outgoing administration's travesty to the forests of
Oregon. I urge you to reject the WOPR and send a message to
the current administration that Oregon’s forests are far
too valuable to be used as gifts to political cronies.
In your consistency review, please highlight these and
other failures of the current proposal, and demand major
amendments be made, or that it be scrapped in its entirety.
Your leadership is vital to a sustainable future for Oregon
and the world's forests, climate, water and ecosystems. The
world is watching.
Respectfully submitted,
** This alert requires JavaScript, and currently Firefox and Internet Explorer are the only tested browsers. Please
let us know immediately if you are having difficulties sending the alert