Your calls are needed!
National Call-In Day TODAY to Protect NationalForests!

The Senate is set to vote by the end of the month on a slightly altered
version of the Bush Administration's ill-named Healthy Forests Initiative.
The plan would do little or nothing to reduce the risk of wildfire to
Western communities, yet would do much to remove citizen participation,
interfere with the judicial system and increase commercial logging. The
backroom deal, which could still be subject to changes in conference
committee, stands in sharp contrast to a proposal by conservation groups
that focuses aid in communities at risk from wildfire.

***YOU CAN HELP***
On October 21, 2003 (today), there is a National Call-In Day planned
when citizens from across the country can call their legislators and
express their desire to PROTECT COMMUNITIES FIRST. Please call Senators
Harkin and Grassley today at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to oppose the
Healthy Forest Initiative because the Administration's proposal fails to
protect currently healthy forests such as mature and old growth forests and
roadless areas, cut citizens out of decisions affecting their public lands,
and does not ensure increased protection for communities from wildfire.

CALL-IN SCRIPT SAMPLE

Hello, I would like to speak with the environmental legislative assistant
(LA), that works on Forest issues, about how Senator ______ plans to vote on
the upcoming Senate vote on the compromise deal on HR 1904.

To Legislative Assistant - My name is _____ and I live in _____, Iowa.  I'm
calling to urge Senator ______ to oppose the Senate compromise deal on HR
1904 - the so-called Healthy Forests and Restoration Act of 2003, that uses
wildfires as a smoke screen to undermine our environmental and public
participation laws and instead support a true community protection
alternative. I specifically have 5 areas of concerns with the compromise
deal on HR 1904.  This compromise bill would:

1. Not protect currently healthy forests such as mature and old growth
forests and roadless areas.
2. Cut citizens out of decisions affecting their public lands.
3. Significantly weaken the National Environmental Policy Act.
4. Interfere with the independence of the federal judiciary.
5. Not ensure increased protection for communities from wildfire.

Background
Over the past year, hundreds of nationally- and locally-elected officials,
scientists, and homeowners from across the country have spoken out against
the Bush plan. They warn that it does not provide the funding needed to
help communities protect themselves from wildfires and is instead a
stalking horse for more subsidized commercial logging. In fact, during a
recent fund-raising swing through the West, Speaker of the House Dennis
Hastert boasted that the Healthy Forests Initiative is "an important bill
for the forest industry" and called it "a common sense approach to make
sure we can build the roads we have to build so this industry can start to
come back." That's a far cry from reassuring communities that help is on
the way.


For further information on protecting National Forests and stopping the
Healthy Forest Initiative, visit http://www.sierraclub.org/forests

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