Kudos to Jerry Neff for a great Iowa LTE in the Des Moines Register:

Letters to the Editor

By REGISTER READERS

July 14, 2004
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No more roads in remaining wild forests

I was dismayed to hear the Bush administration took steps again to undermine
historic protections for the nation's last remaining wild forests. The
administration announced it would seek to rewrite the Forest Service's
widely popular roadless rule.

These proposed changes will leave countless acres of the country's most
pristine forested areas at risk and go against the protections demanded by
the American people. To date, an unprecedented 2 million-plus Americans have
expressed support for the roadless rule and for protecting these special
places and the wildlife habitat, clean water and recreational opportunities
they provide.

Since taking office, the Bush administration has repeatedly whittled away at
the core of the wild-forest policy and failed to defend it in court while
simultaneously promoting intensive logging as a remedy for forest fires.
There are already more than 440,000 miles of roads that scar our national
forests - roads built for the logging industry and paid for with tax dollars
that have destroyed wildlife habitats, caused mudslides and polluted the
water.

We have enough roads. It is time to safeguard the last wild forests. I hope
the Bush administration will begin to listen to the overwhelming majority of
Americans rather than to big logging corporations.

-Gerald Neff,
chairman, Eagle View Group, Sierra Club,
Pleasant Valley.


___________________________________________________

Lyle R. Krewson
Sierra Club Conservation Organizer
6403 Aurora Avenue #3
Des Moines, IA 50322-2862

515/276-8947
515/238-7113 - cel

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