----- Original Message -----
From: Lnorrgard<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
To: Lois LNorrgard<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 2:07 PM
Subject: Senate Tongass Subsidy Amendment vote pending
To: Alaska Coalition Leaders
Great news!
Senator John Sununu (R, NH) has agreed to lead the Tongass subsidy
amendment and Senator Jeff Bingaman (D, NM) is the co-sponsor.
Sununu was at the top of our target list, so we're extremely pleased
that he has agreed to lead the charge.
Now the fun continues! Timing on the Interior bill in the Senate has us
looking at a vote as early as next week, possibly Tuesday.
Please consider sending a letter to Senators urging
them to support the Sununu/Bingaman Tongass Subsidy Amendment.
You can use the letter attached (just add letterhead) or one like it.
Thank you for your help, it is time to stop the wasteful and destructive
timber subsidies on our American rainforest the Tongass!
Lois Norrgard
Regional Organizer
Alaska Coalition
10368 Columbus Circle
Bloomington MN 55420
ph/fx: 952.881-7282
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
June 24, 2005
The Honorable [Full Name]
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator [Last Name] :
On behalf of [organization name], I urge you to vote for the Sununu/Bingaman Tongass Subsidy Amendment to the Interior Appropriations Bill.
I'm increasingly concerned about the waste of millions of taxpayer dollars being spent on logging the Alaskan rainforest. In 2004, taxpayers spent $48 million subsidizing the timber industry in the Tongass National Forest. In today's economic climate I believe the government should be tightening its belt where it can, not continuing to fund a fiscally-irresponsible and publicly-unpopular program.
The remote island landscape of the Tongass makes it one of the most expensive places to log, yet the Forest Service continues to build logging roads that go nowhere except to publicly-owned stands of magnificent trees. Even after millions of taxpayer dollars are unnecessarily spent, many of the timber sales in the rainforest go unsold, and costly logging roads are left to disintegrate. The vast network of abandoned logging roads in the Tongass has left the federal government, or more accurately the American taxpayer, with an estimated road maintenance backlog of nearly $100 million as of 2002.
Now the Forest Service is moving ahead with money-losing, clearcut timber sales that will require thousands of miles of new roads. If the Bush administration were to stick to its proposed logging schedule, over the next decade America's taxpayers could expect to continue to lose tens of millions of dollars each year-a hefty price tag for logging America's Rainforest.
I urge you to end taxpayer-subsidized logging in the Tongass National Forest by voting for the Sununu/Bingaman Tongass Subsidy Amendment to the Interior Appropriations Bill.
I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see:
http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp
|
