Please send your comments on this issue by September 10 -- refer to the
article in the recent Iowa Sierran.

           STATEMENT OF SIERRA CLUB EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CARL POPE
             CALLING ON PRESIDENT BUSH TO PROTECT WILD FORESTS

WASHINGTON, DC --  "Once again, the U.S. Forest Service has received
mountains of letters from Americans asking that the last wild areas in our
National Forests be protected for future generations, not sacrificed for
short term profits. As the latest public comment period draws to close,
conservation groups will deliver another estimated 400,000 comments to the
Forest Service, bringing the total number of letters and comments delivered
on the Roadless Area Conservation Rule to more than two million. Yet
President Bush continues his efforts to pay back his campaign contributors
by opening our last wild forests to the timber industry. The president
should listen to Americans and stop playing politics with our natural
treasures.

"From Alaska's Tongass rainforest to the Florida pine forests, citizens
calling for wild forest protection vastly outnumbered those opposed. People
want these areas saved for hunting, fishing, camping, and providing clean
water forever--not sacrificed for the profit of the timber and mining
industries. President Bush should listen to Americans and fully implement
the popular Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

"The Forest Service spent years developing the roadless protection policy,
instituting the largest public involvement process in history. The Forest
Service held more than 600 public hearings around the nation and received
more than one and a half million comments over the first two public comment
periods. Despite the tremendous public support for protecting wild forests,
President Bush is considering weakening the historic conservation plan and
reopening our last wild forests to logging and other destructive activities.

"If fully implemented, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule would protect
nearly 60 million acres of the most pristine areas in our National Forests
from most logging and road building. These increasingly scarce unspoiled
places are crucial for providing quality hunting and fishing, for
protecting watersheds that supply drinking water, for offering magnificent
scenery and providing backcountry recreation."

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