Action Alert:  The Tongass National Forest Needs Your Help.

Act Now.  House vote expected on Thursday!

     Click on the following link to send a fax to your Representative:
              http://whistler.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=390

     Call the Capitol Switchboard and asked to be connected with your
          Congressional Representative's office:  (202) 224-3121

It's time for us to tell Congress that we don't want to pay to pave and log
America's Rainforest! Members of Congress can say no to funding
fiscally-irresponsible logging in the Tongass.

Last June, by a strong bipartisan majority, the U.S. House of
Representatives passed the Chabot/Andrews amendment to eliminate taxpayer
subsidies for logging road construction in the Tongass. The measure was
eventually dropped from the bill in conference.

This year, U.S. Representatives Steve Chabot (R-OH) and Robert Andrews
(D-NJ) are taking the lead again to end fiscally irresponsible spending by
re-offering their amendment to the annual Interior Appropriations bill.

At a time when the government is running huge budget deficits, the Forest
Service wasted $48 million taxpayer dollars last year to subsidize the
timber industry's clearcutting of America's Rainforest - and they want to
continue to throw good money after bad. If the Bush administration were to
stick to its proposed logging schedule in the Tongass, over the next decade
America's taxpayers could expect losses totaling over $1.2 billion-a hefty
price tag for clearcutting America's Rainforest.

If the President and Congress are serious about cutting government waste,
the subsidy to the logging industry in Alaska is a good place to start. It
should not be the responsibility of American taxpayers to foot the bill to
clearcut America's rainforest. American taxpayers deserve better and so
does America's Rainforest.

Let's tell Congress to support the Chabot/Andrews Amendment to stop using
taxpayer subsidies to log our nation's largest National Forest.

Take Action: Contact your Congressman today!

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on a pro-Tongass
amendment on THURSDAY! Here's how you can help!

Contact your U.S. Representative and ask them to VOTE YES on the
Chabot/Andrews Tongass Subsidy amendment to the Interior Appropriations
Bill. The amendment prohibits taxpayer dollars from being wasted on new
logging roads in the Tongass National Forest.

TALKING POINTS

>The Tongass National Forest in Alaska is America's Rainforest. It was
established by Teddy Roosevelt in 1907 and is the largest intact temperate
rainforest in the world. Its giant Sitka Spruce and other old growth trees,
which had already been growing for hundreds of years before Columbus came
to America, are home to wolves, bears, salmon and Bald Eagles that have
disappeared from many other parts of the country.

>I'm calling to urge you to seek an end to the waste of millions of taxpayer
dollars on logging the America's rainforest in Alaska. In 2004, Forest
Service records show that taxpayers lost nearly $48 million on the logging
program in the Tongass National Forest.

>In today's economic climate it's increasingly important that our tax
dollars are spent responsibly. It's simply irresponsible for the federal
government to spend tens of millions of our tax dollars subsidizing the
timber industry in Alaska and, in the process, destroying our wild forest
heritage in an international treasure that attracts hunters, fishermen and
tourists from around the world.

>I urge you to support the Chabot/Andrews Tongass subsidy amendment to end
taxpayer-subsidized logging road construction in the Tongass National
Forest.

          For more information visit:  www.sierraclub.org/forests
                   Or call Myke Bybee at (202) 547-1141

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