Nice to see the good species win one!



> this went out yesterday and there in an AP story running nationwide that
> uses Roxanne's first quote. congrats to legal team and our folks in AZ!
>
> For Immediate Release:  February 14, 2006
>
> Contacts:   Roxane George, Sierra Club (928) 774-6514
>                   Todd Schulke, Center for Biological Diversity  (505)
> 574-5962
>                   Sandy Bahr, Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter (602)
> 253-8633
>
>
>    Bush Administration Forced to Abandon Plans to Log Near Grand Canyon
>
> Conservationists call on Administration to protect communities at risk
> from
>               wildfires instead of logging old growth forests
>
> (Phoenix) Today, the Forest Service announced withdrawal of a
> controversial
> old growth timber sale in the Grand Canyon Game Preserve, just three miles
> from the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.  The Sierra Club and the
> Center for Biological Diversity had challenged the East Rim timber sale, a
> 17,216-acre project, in remote areas of the Kaibab National Forest.
>
> "The decision to abandon this controversial timber sale is a wake-up call
> that the Forest Service must fund projects that actually protect
> communities from wildfire, instead of logging in remote areas," said
> Roxanne George with the Sierra Club. "We advocate legitimate fuels
> reduction like thinning small trees near communities at risk from
> wildfires, but the East Rim Timber Sale targeted old growth trees near the
> rim of the Grand Canyon."
>
> Under the guise of increasing forest health and decreasing fire risk, the
> Forest Service proposal would have permitted the logging of at least 8
> million board feet of timber (enough to fill 1,800 logging trucks) 48
> miles
> from the nearest community, including tens of thousands of large,
> fire-resistant trees.  The plan included extensive logging within popular
> camping and recreation sites overlooking Grand Canyon National Park, as
> well as areas directly adjacent to the Saddle Mountain Wilderness Area.
> Conservationists called this a tragic waste of resources, since at the
> same
> time that the East Rim timber sale was being planned, populated
> communities
> like Mt. Lemmon near Tucson had to forgo desperately needed fuels
> reduction
> projects due to  lack of funding.
>
> "We are pleased that the Forest Service has withdrawn the East Rim Timber
> Sale, and we strongly encourage the Forest Service to consider a future
> project that truly protects old growth, wildlife, and our national
> heritage," said Todd Schulke with the Center for Biological Diversity.
> ?This logging proposal would have harmed rare wildlife and logged within
> designated old growth forests as well as the Grand Canyon Game Preserve, a
> protected area set aside by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 for the
> benefit of wildlife."
>
> The North Rim, particularly the Kaibab Plateau area where the sale is
> located, has always been a paradise for a wide variety of wildlife.
> President and sportsman Theodore Roosevelt was so impressed by the area
> that in 1906 he designated it the Grand Canyon Game Preserve, and demanded
> that it be "set apart forever for the use and benefit of our people as a
> whole and not sacrificed to the shortsighted greed of a few."  The East
> Rim
> timber sale was located entirely within the boundaries of the Preserve.
>
> The groups' challenge contended that the Forest Service violated the law
> in
> planning the East Rim Sale by failing to protect habitat for several
> species of wildlife listed under the Endangered Species Act, including the
> Mexican spotted owl, as well as sensitive species like the northern
> goshawk.  The densest breeding population of northern goshawks in North
> America exists on the Kaibab Plateau.  The Plateau has also been
> designated
> a National Natural Landmark for the protection of the Kaibab squirrel, a
> unique species found nowhere else on earth which has been compared to
> Darwin?s finches on the Galapagos islands as a classic example of
> evolution
> through geographic isolation.
>
> To date, 95 percent of the old growth in the Southwest has been logged.
> Approximately 90 percent of the remaining trees in the Southwest?s forests
> are 12 inches in diameter and smaller.  The old growth left on the Kaibab
> National Forest is especially important because it represents the best
> opportunity to restore old growth on a landscape scale.  While the forest
> plan calls for managing 20 percent of the Kaibab National Forest to
> maintain an old growth condition, this small number does not represent
> what
> existed historically and is not sufficient to restore the ecosystem.
>
>                                     ###
>
> The Center for Biological Diversity is an environmental organization based
> in Tucson, Arizona dedicated to the preservation, protection and
> restoration of biodiversity, native species, ecosystems and public lands.
>
> The Sierra Club is the nation?s oldest and largest grassroots conservation
> organization with nearly 13,000 members in Arizona.
>
>
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