-- A message from Rene Voss and Brock Evans --
Forwarded by Jane Clark at [log in to unmask]

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

Please forward and distribute this e-mail widely.  Our advanced appologies
for any cross-postings.

This is not a request to vote for Gore over Nader.  However, you should
know
what some of the real world consequences of a George W. Bush Presidency
would mean to our national forests.  We believe it is likely that Bush will
keep his promises and follow through with what he has told us he will do.
These consequences are grim but real, and we are asking that everyone
understand how important this presidential choice is for the future of our
national forests and public lands.  While we realize that Nader supports
ending commercial logging of our national forests, the fact remains: he
won't be elected President and Bush or Gore will be.  Gore isn't perfect,
but he HAS come out publicly for no logging in roadless areas and ancient
forests.  A Bush Presidency on the other hand is likely to result in the
some grim outcomes that we will have to live with for a long time.

THE ROADLESS PROTECTION RULE IS OVER-RIDDEN BY CONGRESS -- According to
Idaho Sen. Larry Craig's committee staffer Mark Rey, the Republican Senate
will have 60 days to overrule the final roadless protection rule which can
be done with a majority vote.  No filibusters are allowed.  Bush has stated
repeatedly that he opposes the roadless protection rule, which could
protect
from 43 to 60 million acres of national forests from roadbuilding and
logging.  Therefore he won't veto the Senate's action and these lands will
revert to their previous unprotected status.  Logging will likely resume in
Cove Mallard and many other precious roadless areas in Idaho, Oregon,
Washington, Montana, California …  Name your own favorite roadless area.
If
it has trees in it, it will most likely be opened up to timber sales under
a
Bush Presidency because he won't veto any riders to protect them.  Gore has
pledged to protect these areas from logging as well as roadbuilding.

THE SURVEY AND MANAGE RIDER RESTARTS OLD GROWTH LOGGING -- Last year's most
heinous rider was stripped under veto threat from the FY2000 Interior
Appropriation Bill.  This "Survey and Manage" rider is likely to resurface
in the first supplemental appropriations bill in the Spring of 2001,
allowing the Forest Service to release hundreds of timber sales in old
growth forest areas of the Pacific Northwest that have been set aside by
litigation.  The sales violate the PNW Forest Plan due to lack of species
survey data.  In addition, the rider would release countless timber sales
in
Southern national forests and effectively overturn the landmark Sierra Club
v. Martin ruling in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals which brought logging
levels in the South to a third of what they were just 3 years ago.  Under a
Bush Presidency there will be no veto threat, and Senator Craig and his
pro-timber allies will reinsert this rider as soon as possible.

THE REPLACEMENT OF THE FOREST SERVICE CHIEF -- Bush is likely to replace
Forest Serivce Chief Dombeck with someone who can "put the national forests
back to work", as Bush has promised in the various environmental speeches
on
the campaign trail …read: significant increases in logging.  Reform of the
Forest Service will likely come to a grinding halt and all the timber
beasts
at the district ranger level of the Forest Service will be allowed to
revert
to the old get-out-the-cut management schemes of the late 80's.  These led
to this nation's highest logging levels and the endangerment of salmon,
spotted owls, lynx, bull trout and goshawk.

THE CRAIG NATIONAL FOREST DESTRUCTION ACT BECOMES LAW -- The National
Forest
Management Act is likely to be significantly revised under the leadership
of
Idaho Sen. Larry Craig with a potential to put management of some of our
forests in the hands of States (Idaho, for sure) and their local counties
who will manage our lands by increasing logging to reopen timber mills
under
the guise of helping their local economies.  At one point, the Craig bill
called for selling off some of the best forestlands, putting these lands in
the hands of the timber industry.  An emboldened Sen. Craig has been
patiently awaiting a Bush Presidency, with Republican control of the Senate
and House.   In the latest version of his bill, he called for streamlining
NEPA and ESA procedures, eliminating the citizens' appeals processes, and a
focusing management on resource extraction.  The law would effectively end
legal oversight of the national forests by the courts allowing the timber,
oil and gas, livestock and mining industry to reign freely in our national
forests.

REP. DON YOUNG IS APPOINTED AS INTERIOR SECRETARY -- Rep. Don Young (R-AK),
chairman of the House Resources Committee, expects to be offered the post
of
Interior Secretary in a Bush Administration.  Young is an outspoken
proponent for increased logging on public lands (including old growth) and
has used his position as Chairman of the Resources Committee to block
forest
protection legislation in the House of Representatives for the past six
years.  Young's resource extraction advocacy makes James Watt look like a
boy scout.  The BLM (part of the Interior Department) is in charge of
mining
and oil and gas permits on national forests and can release these
subsurface
minerals in vast areas of the east and west.  It's likely that logging on
the Tongass National Forest will get a significant boost in subsidies with
his help, to say nothing about drilling for oil in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge and new management of our National Park Service, which are
an agency of the Interior Department.  Other names, prominently mentioned
by
Bush in his campaign are Senator Craig himself, and Montana Governor Mark
Raciot, also staunchly anti-environmental.

PROGRESSIVE FOREST PLAN REVISIONS GRIND TO A HALT -- All of the hard work
by
activists in the field over the last 6-10 years - to get public support for
forest plans that provide greater lands protection - will have been for
not.
As happened when Reagan was elected, Bush is likely to require that
forestplan revisions be suspended, directing each national forest to
continue work under existing plans which were issued during the Reagan era.
These plans are outdated and called for the logging that produced over 12
billion board feet per year in the late 80s.  That's a 600% increase over
current logging levels of around 2 billion board feet in FY2000.  Off-road
vehicle restrictions could be lifted, as well as other restrictions on
industrial-scale recreation (new ski areas, etc.)

ENDANGERED SPECIES LISTINGS AND RECOVERY GRIND TO A HALT -- With Don Young
at the helm of the Interior Department, which oversees the US Fish and
Wildlife Service, an ESA listing moratorium is likely to resurface and
recovery efforts will be greatly hampered by new leadership in the agency.
If Young is not Secretary, he or key allies will almost certainly make a
vigorous effort to push his the two bad ESA bills from earlier this year,
which not only effectively destroy the ESA as a protective tool, but also
apply expanded takings requirements to any ESA regulation-making it next to
impossible to apply the ESA to private landowners.  We can kiss our
remaining wild salmon and bull trout runs good-buy in the chaos which will
ensue from a long and protacted legislative battle by the environmental
community, which we are likely to lose, given a Republican Congress.  In
the
mean time, there will be complete neglect of any meaningful recovery
efforts.  Many observers believe that the ESA will be the first law to be
"amended" by rider, probably "devolved to the states" for "implementation",
as Bush has so often promised on the campaign trail.

A BUSH JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WILL SETTLE WITH TIMBER LITIGANTS – While
environmental groups have fought hard in the courts to win forest
protections, the industry will start filing lawsuits that the
Administration
can simply decide to settle in their favor.  This is a likely route that
will lead to a fast demise of the roadless protection policy or any other
plans or policies that the industry doesn't like.  In addition, Bush will
appoint hundreds of conservative Federal Judges with the enthusiastic
concurrence of Sen. Orin Hatch (R-UT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee.  Don't forget that Bush is likely to appoint two or three
Supreme
Court Justices and favors clones of Justices Scalia and Thomas, tireless
champions of eroding citizen's access to the courts.

A "NO NET GAIN" OF FEDERAL LANDS POLICY -- This year's interior
appropriations bill led to a significant increase in funding for land
acquisition.  However, it is unlikely that the increase in Land and Water
Conservation Funds will ever get fully spent or will lead to more federal
lands.  In addition to supporting local control, Bush may try to adopt a
"no
net gain" of federal lands policy, which would require the divestments of
"surplus lands" anytime new acquisitions are made.  This will result in an
increase in land exchanges that favor the timber industry and developers
and
allow vast tracts of old growth forests to be traded for clear-cut industry
lands.

A MOVEMENT IN DISARRAY AND FULL OF BLAME -- The life's work of many forest
activists will wiped away by the consequences of a Bush Presidency.  The
difficulties we faced with a Gingrich Congress will pale by comparison if
the House remains in Republican hands and Bush occupies the White House.
It's likely that many of our best and most experienced activists will drop
out of the movement and those dedicated few that remain will blame the
Nader
supporters, creating a huge rift in our movement, regardless of whether
Nader contributed to a Bush victory or not.  The signs of such a rift is
already evident.

Under Gore, we have much hope, based on actual statements made by the Vice
President recently that positive developments started during the Clinton
Administration will be retained and improved on, and that new policy
initiatives on old growth protection, invasive species and off road
vehicles
can get going.  Under Bush, many believe we can only hope we don't spend
all
four years in jail for expressing our constitutional rights and protesting
illegal timber sales.

Please consider these specific and direct consequences to all the places
and
values we love and have fought so hard to protect carefully before you cast
your vote for President on Nov. 7th, especially if you are in a State where
the race is close, such as Washington, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Missouri, Iowa, or Minnesota.

May the forests be with us,

Rene Voss
Legislative Director
John Muir Project - Earth Island Institute

Brock Evans
Executive Director
Endangered Species Coalition

(affiliations are for identification purposes only -- these opinions are
our
own and are not meant to represent the opinions of the John Muir Project,
Earth Island Institute, or the Endangered Species Coalition)

**********************

René Voss
726 7th Street SE
Washington, DC  20003
Office: 202-547-9124
Fax: 202-547-9210
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