FW: [NFPA] Save the Date: Siskiyou Wild Rivers Call in Day -- July 6, 2004

As you probably know, the Biscuit fire was the initial one Bush used as
his poster child for the insane "Healthy Forests" legislation, which
alas was rammed through during the California fires.  Of course, the
latter was principally brush and not forest, but what the hell.
Anything to scare people into supporting a nasty piece of legislation.
  
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of Jeanette Russell
Sent: June 29, 2004 2:48 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [NFPA] Save the Date: Siskiyou Wild Rivers Call in Day -- July
6, 2004


To:       All Activists

From:   American Lands Alliance

Date:    June 29, 2004


 
Save the Date: Siskiyou Wild Rivers Call in Day -- July 6, 2004


 
The Bush Administration's Forest Service has planned the largest public
lands timber sale in modern history in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area in
Southwestern, Oregon.  The Forest Service plans to log 372 million board
feet in the Biscuit post-fire project, filling 70,000 logging trucks.
The extremely controversial ancient forest areas targeted for logging
include roadless areas, old-growth reserves, and special places such as
Silver and Indigo Creeks in the North Kalmiopsis, the Chetco River and
Lawson Creek, and on Fiddler Mountain.  Logging would take place within
the proposed Siskiyou Wild Rivers Conservation Area.  The project will
cost the taxpayers more than $34 million and will disqualify 48,000
acres from wilderness eligibility.  


 
The Forest Service has granted an "emergency exemption" for 11 timber
sales of the Biscuit logging project.  This means that once the Records
of Decision come out, the Forest Service can use the exemption to
quickly sell and log the trees during the normal citizen appeal period.
Additionally, there are rumors that if environmental groups try to block
the "emergency exemption" that some Congressional members may try to
attach a rider to an appropriations bill that would eliminate any chance
for environmental groups to challenge the Biscuit logging project in
court. 


 
Your help is needed to stop the largest timber sale in modern history
and a potential rider in Congress.


 
Take Action to Protect the Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area: 

Please help us get the phones ringing off the hook in the US Senate on
July 6, 2004.  Please ask your organization's members and/or friends to
help in this effort.


 
Call in Day:

On July 6, 2004 please call your US Senators at 202-224-3121.  To find
out who your Senators' are please go to:  <http://www.senate.gov/>
http://www.senate.gov/ . You can also fax or email your Senator (talking
points and a sample letter are provided below).  To find your Senators'
fax and email numbers go to:
<http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm>
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm


 
Once you have reached your Senator, ask to speak to the staff that works
on forest issues.  The points to make to the Senator or the staff are:


 
*        Oppose any legislative efforts to exempt the largest timber
sale in history -- the Biscuit post-fire logging project in Southern
Oregon -- from environmental laws and from judicial review.


 
*        Please protect the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area in southwestern
Oregon as a National Conservation Area for future generations.


 
*        Please urge the Forest Service to protect all ancient forests,
old growth reserves and roadless areas.


 
Sample Letter:

Dear Senator (put Senator's name here):


 
As a person who cares about the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area in Southern
Oregon, I do not support the Bush Administration Forest Service's
logging plan in the Biscuit fire area on our public forest.  The Forest
Service plans to log 372 million board feet in the Biscuit post-fire
project, filling 70,000 logging trucks, which amounts to the largest
timber sale in modern history.  The areas targeted for logging include
extremely controversial areas such as roadless areas, old-growth
reserves, and special places such as Silver and Indigo Creeks in the
North Kalmiopsis, the Chetco River and Lawson Creek, and on Fiddler
Mountain.  The project will cost the taxpayers more than $34 million and
will disqualify 48,000 acres from wilderness eligibility.


 
I believe the Siskiyous should be protected as a National Conservation
Area.  I urge you to protect this national treasure and not permit it to
be sacrificed to short term logging interests.


 
Please actively oppose any legislation or riders that would allow large
scale logging in the Siskiyous and deprive citizens of their right to
participate and use our nation's environmental laws.


 
The Siskiyou Wild Rivers area is extremely important because of its wild
lands, its wild rivers, its wild salmon and for its famed biological
diversity. Natural recovery rather than post-fire logging will best
protect these values. Burned trees are needed for the recovery of the
forests. Logging them will damage thin soils, cause erosion and retard
recovery.  Please keep the Bush Administration from sacrificing the
incredible Siskiyou Wild Rivers area with the largest, most extreme
timber sale in Forest Service history.


 
Sincerely,

(your name, address)


 
Additional Talking Points:

*        The Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area is one of the most diverse
forests in the nation with healthy salmon runs and fragile, rare plant
ecosystems. It is not a place for a massive logging project.


 
*        The forest is already naturally recovering from the 2002 fire.
Logging will retard its recovery.  This sale is the largest timber sale
in Forest Service history. It would log 370 million board feet. It is
the largest attack on Roadless Areas and would disqualify 48,000 acres
from Wilderness protection.


 
*        The public overwhelmingly opposes this sale. 95% of comments on
the sale oppose the massive logging proposal.


 
*        The Forest Service should protect homes and communities from
fire, not log in the backcountry.


 
*         Instead of focusing on logging, we should remove old logging
roads, thin plantations, rehabilitate fire lines and trails; which would
create over 400 jobs. The proposed logging doesn't make economic sense.
The timber sales would cost more to log than the revenues they bring in.
Any jobs created would be short-lived and out of the area. These won't
be "new" jobs but will substitute for other logging work elsewhere.


 
Lisa Dix

National Forest Program Director

American Lands Alliance

ldix-bhd29NJtgzHwAmIWGZwM3ti2O/[email protected]

Ph: 202-547-9105; Fax: 202-547-9213


 

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