**You can help protect your National Forests with a simple phone call!
National call-in day JULY 16, 2003!**

With the Bush Administration's ill-named Healthy Forest Initiative having
passed through the US House of Representatives, it is now making way
through the Senate along with several other pieces of forest-related
legislation.

The Bush logging plan does little to protect homes and communities from
possible forest fires and is simply a guise to increase commercial logging
in our National Forests.

In addition, the Administration's plan seeks to cut the public from public
forest management and would give unprecedented leeway for agency managers to
promote harmful logging projects across our National Forests.

The Bush logging plan misses on all of the major components that a
responsible, science-based, community protection plan should have. The US
Forest Service Fire Research lab has found that the best method to protect
homes from a forest fire is by creating defensible space 100 feet around a
home and 500 meters around communities. Certainly, the administration can
do better than this! For information on real home safety and responsible
fire management see www.sierraclub.org/logging and www.firewise.org

** National Call in Day July 16, 2003: the National Call in Day is aimed at
generating as many calls as we possibly can to the Senate in an effort to
spread the word that Americans do not support the Bush Administration's
Healthy Forests Initiative or other harmful logging bills. You can call
your Senators through the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121. To
find your Senator go to
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

Please urge Senators Harkin and Grassley to OPPOSE the Bush "Healthy Forests
Initiative" and HR 1904. Tell them that HR 1904:
1. Will not ensure any increased protection for communities at risk from
fires.
Protecting communities and lives must be the top priority for fire
legislation.

2. Will promote destructive logging in the backcountry miles away from
communities at risk.

3. Will reduce your democratic rights to participate in decisions about how
your public lands are managed.

4. Will interfere with the independent judiciary by restricting our
democratic
rights to seek redress in the court involving grievances with the federal
government for damaging "forest health" projects.  This bill shifts the
balance to favor the federal agencies over citizens.

In addition please tell Senators to:
1. Support community protection by requiring that fuel reduction projects
be concentrated in the Community Protection Zone a quarter-mile  around
communities to provide real protection.  Forest Service research has found
this is the only proven method to protect homes and communities.

2. Direct at least 85% of the National Fire Plan hazardous fuels budget to
grants for states and funding to local communities to provide funds to
ensure community and homeowner protection in the Community Protection Zone.
Research has shown that 85% of the lands within the Community Protection
Zone are State, tribal, county and non-industrial private lands.

3. Oppose any forest management legislation that excludes environmental
analysis, reduces public participation, or seeks to increase commercial
logging.

Please share this alert. For further information, please visit
http://www.sierraclub.org/logging

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see:
 http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp