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For Immediate Release: July 11, 2002
Contact: Annie Strickler, (202) 675-2384

            Forest Service Cooks the Books at Congress' Request

Washington, D.C. -- Bowing to demands from some members of Congress, the
U.S. Forest Service has rigged data on forest management projects in an
attempt to promote a logging agenda. Unhappy when a non-partisan General
Accounting Office report soundly discredited their accusation that
environmental groups were to blame for recent forest fires, members of
Congress demanded that the Forest Service skew numbers to arrive at a
predetermined conclusion.

"The Forest Service's rigged numbers are the worst kind of cynical
politics, trying to confuse Americans about why wildfires are racing across
drought-stricken lands. It appears that when the findings of the
non-partisan investigative arm of Congress do not support your allegations,
the Forest Service simply cooks up new numbers," said Sierra Club Executive
Director Carl Pope. "The Forest Service is trying to skirt responsibility
for failing to properly manage our National Forests and failing to protect
people and property from catastrophic wildfires."

Last summer, the GAO released a report examining the 1,671 Forest Service
projects in 2001 aimed at reducing the fire danger in National Forest areas
at risk of catastrophic fires. Of these 1,671 projects, environmentalists
had appealed only 20 -- about 1 percent -- and had taken none to court.
This directly contradicted statements by Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and others
who wanted to blame environmentalists.

Then, in the new report, the Forest Service rigged the numbers by including
only a small subset of the Forest Service projects the GAO considered --
mostly timber sales that do nothing to negate the risks of forest fires.
Many of these projects involve logging in roadless areas and endangered
species habitat and are miles from at-risk communities. The Forest Service
report studiously ignored prescribed burns and other measures supported by
environmentalists and scientists, thus padding their percentages.

"The Forest Service report ignores the sensible projects such as small
prescribed burns that scientists recommend to reduce the risks of fire,"
continued Pope. "The Forest Service set out to study only the big logging
projects on which we disagree and, lo and behold, they found that we
disagree. If the Forest Service simply acted in the best interest of our
National Forests, they would not feel the need to spend time planning for
lawsuits and cooking up new reports. They would instead focus their
energies on protecting communities and restoring forests."

                                    ###






Erin Jordahl
Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
515-277-8868
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