(Please do not forward this to other listserves without checking with me first -- thanks, Jane Clark) Judge DENIES Administration request for delay! Roadless Rule court proceedings creep forward. The Bush Administration's attempts to avoid action on the roadless policy, signed by President Clinton on January 5, 2001, were met with a roadblock in the United States District Court of Idaho. Late yesterday, U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge denied the Bush Administration's request for a delay in proceedings in a lawsuit filed, against the policy, by the State of Idaho and Governor Dirk Kempthorne. Judge Lodge ordered the Bush Administration to file its response to the State's preliminary injunction today. Consequentially, the Administration will be forced to take a position on the roadless rule, as it applies to the State of Idaho case, TODAY! That decision will affect the entire roadless policy. It will affect ALL states where the roadless policy would be implemented. NOW is the time to get letters, faxes, and calls into the White House demanding action from the Administration. During Senate confirmation hearings, Attorney General Ashcroft pledged to defend the roadless policy. He must be held to that pledge. President Bush needs to hear the same mandate from the American people to implement the roadless policy that the Clinton Administration did while developing it. Please call the White House today, and let your voice be heard! Call the White House at (202) 456-6798. The Forest Protection Rule is the product of two decades of broad debate, three years of focused discussion, 6 months of public comment, and over 600 local meetings and hearings on each National Forest and in each Forest Service region. The Rule, which protects 58.5 million acres of roadless forests, received a record-breaking mandate of 1.6 million public comments of which more than 95% called for the strongest possible protection for the remaining wild National Forest lands. As a result of a February 5, 2001 memo from White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, the Bush Administration delayed implementation of the Roadless Policy until May 12, 2001. For more information or to send a letter of fax to the White House, please go to http://www.capitolconnect.com/audubon/contact/default.asp?subject=29. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask]