(Please do not forward this to other listserves without checking with me
first -- thanks, Jane Clark)

Judge DENIES Administration request for delay!  Roadless Rule court
proceedings creep forward.

The Bush Administration's attempts to avoid action on the roadless policy,
signed by President Clinton on January 5, 2001, were met with a roadblock in
the United States District Court of Idaho.  Late yesterday, U.S. District
Judge Edward Lodge denied the Bush Administration's request for a delay in
proceedings in a lawsuit filed, against the policy, by the State of Idaho
and Governor Dirk Kempthorne.  Judge Lodge ordered the Bush Administration
to file its response to the State's preliminary injunction today.

Consequentially, the Administration will be forced to take a position on the
roadless rule, as it applies to the State of Idaho case, TODAY! That
decision will affect the entire roadless policy.  It will affect ALL states
where the roadless policy would be implemented.

NOW is the time to get letters, faxes, and calls into the White House
demanding action from the Administration.  During Senate confirmation
hearings, Attorney General Ashcroft pledged to defend the roadless policy.
He must be held to that pledge.  President Bush needs to hear the same
mandate from the American people to implement the roadless policy that the
Clinton Administration did while developing it.  Please call the White House
today, and let your voice be heard!

Call the White House at (202) 456-6798.

The Forest Protection Rule is the product of two decades of broad debate,
three years of focused discussion, 6 months of public comment, and over 600
local meetings and hearings on each National Forest and in each Forest
Service region.

The Rule, which protects 58.5 million acres of roadless forests, received a
record-breaking mandate of 1.6 million public comments of which more than
95% called for the strongest possible protection for the remaining wild
National Forest lands.  As a result of a February 5, 2001 memo from White
House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, the Bush Administration delayed
implementation of the Roadless Policy until May 12, 2001.

For more information or to send a letter of fax to the White House, please
go to http://www.capitolconnect.com/audubon/contact/default.asp?subject=29.

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