WHERE THERE'S SMOKE:  The head of the Bush administration's wildfire
prevention program "doubts the existence of ecosystems and says it
would not be a crisis if the nation's threatened and endangered species
became extinct" reports the Seattle Times, Gannett News Service 8/31.
Alan Fitzsimmons, whose free-market, libertarian background has
"alarmed environmental groups across the West, denies charges that the
president's Healthy Forest Initiative is a "cynical attempt to turn
chains saws loose from sea to shining sea with smoke from forest fires
as cover."  ..............GREENLines today.

A FEW HOUSE DEMOCRATS SUPPORTING LAWLESS LOGGING INSTEAD OF COMMUNITY
PROTECTION

The House of Representatives is moving quickly to pass lawless logging
legislation based on the President's "healthy forests" plan.  This Thursday,
the House Resources Forest Subcommittee is expected to "mark-up" lawless
logging legislation while the House Agriculture Forest Subcommittee is
holding a hearing on the President's proposal to suspend environmental laws
and eliminate public involvement.   Unfortunately, a Democrat on each
Committee has indicated that they will either support the President's
harmful plan, or work for a "lawless logging-lite" compromise.

This message is to alert you to this upcoming battle.

Below is the text of a letter Sierra Club sent to Congress.

BUSH/CRAIG LOGGING PLAN
GUTS ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT
ON AMERICAS NATIONAL FORESTS

Americas national forests are home to bald eagles, grizzly bears, wild
salmon and over 140 other at-risk species conserved under the Endangered
Species Act (ESA).  Of all America's public lands: National Parks; National
Monuments; areas administered by the Bureau of Land Management; even,
National Wildlife Refuges, none support as many federally threatened and
endangered species as America's National Forests.

THE BUSH/CRAIG LOGGING PLANAn amendment to the Senate Interior
Appropriations Bill offered by Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), to implement
President Bush's "Healthy Forests Initiative", seeks to remove all
protections for these special fish and wildlife resources by gutting the ESA
and other conservation laws on America's National Forests.Using the mask of
protecting communities from wildfire, the Bush/Craig logging plan seeks to
hand America's national forests over to the timber industry by shutting the
public and sound science out of public land management.

The Bush/Craig logging plan attempts to exempt logging on America's National
Forests from ALL public comment, environmental impact analysis and
administrative appeals. If citizens challenge government logging activities
in court the Bush/Craig plan seeks to skew the outcome of court decisions in
favor of Forest Service timber managers by requiring judges to give
deferenany any Forest Service opinion that the long-term benefits of the
logging outweigh the environmental risks - effectively allowing judges to
let the Forest Service ignore the requirements of the ESA at will.

The Bush/Craig logging plan also seeks to mandate that consultations between
Forest Service timber managers and wildlife biologists on the impacts of
logging on threatened and endangered species be "expedited."

IMPACT ON ENDANGERED SPECIES CONSERVATION

The impact of the Bush/Craig logging plan on threatened and endangered
species conservation will be significant.  Expediting consultations between
government timber managers and wildlife biologists on the impacts of logging
on endangered species increases the
likelihood that in the rush to promote logging decisions will not be made
using the "best available science", as the ESA requires.  Where impacts on
listed species are identified citizens and scientists will have no
opportunity to comment and advise the government on how to avoid those
impacts.

If the Forest Service chooses to allow logging that impacts endangered
species, the Bush/Craig logging plan removes citizens rights to be involved
in the management of America's National Forests except through costly and
time consuming lawsuits.  Even then, judges could arbitrarily decide to let
the Forest Service ignore the ESA based on an agency opinion developed with
no public input, no environmental impact analysis and hasty consultations
with wildlife biologists.The Bush/Craig logging plan is a plan that
sacrifices America's natural heritage to the sawmill.  It is a plan that
will do nothing to protect Americans from the risk of wildfire while
increasing the risks facing America's imperiled fish and wildlife resources.
It is a plan for extinction.

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