Sierra Club Currents -- Protecting People vs. Gutting Forest Safeguards Volume II, #64, Thursday, August 22 ---- Quote of the Day: "It's the smaller-diameter fuels and fine fuels that get a wildfire going. The Forest Service really needs to prioritize and concentrate the thinning in forests near communities." Jennifer Ferenstein, Sierra Club President and Missoula, Montana resident Protecting People vs. Gutting Forest Safeguards Which do you think is more important: making sure that communities and homes are safe from forest fires, or giving the timber industry carte blanche to log our national forests? We thought so. Sierra Club and allies proposed a new vision on forest policies yesterday, which puts people before profits. But the Bush administration countered with its own plan today, using this summer's spate of forest fires as an excuse to gut crucial forest protections. The administration's proposal would give timber companies free rein to log even the old-growth areas of our national forests. Cutting these large, fire-resistant trees would do nothing to reduce the risk of fire, but it would mean big bucks for the timber industry. Environmentalists are tired of finger-pointing, and are looking for real solutions. The Bush administration's plan doesn't provide them. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The following details are from The Wilderness Society today. In a callous response to a summer of human suffering and property loss across the Western United States, President Bush yesterday announced his proposed changes to federal wildfire policy. His plan will pay off the timber industry, disembowel environmental protections and do precious little to protect our forests, those who live near them and those men and women who risk their lives fighting wildfire. Please tell President Bush that you reject his fire plan for what it is: a shameless willingness to trade on human fear and suffering just to fulfill the timber industry's wildest anti-environmental dreams. We urge you to call the White House comment line at 202-456-1111 yourself, and get your family and friends involved by forwarding this Wild Alert to them and asking them to respond. The threat to our forests from this initiative is that serious! One of the Worst Summers on Record Wildfire charred more than six million acres of forest this summer and some fires continue to burn. The fires also damaged hundreds of homes and caused entire communities to be evacuated. The reasons are generally understood and generally agreed upon: -This summer caps four years of serious drought across the West. Standing timber has less moisture in it than kiln-dried lumberyard two-by-fours. -The nation has systematically extinguished every blaze, of every size, in our forests for over a century. The result is fuel-many more trees per acre than occurred historically, and a huge increase of low, weedy, flammable growth those natural fires cyclically consumed. -People are moving into forest environments in growing numbers and are reluctant to remove the very trees that attracted them in the first place and where local zoning often neither prohibits such building nor imposes sensible fire-protection requirements on it. When reasons are so well understood, solutions should be correspondingly clear. And they are. A VERY DANGEROUS BLAME GAME The timber industry, now speaking through a compliant president eager to press an election advantage, says environmental regulations are to blame-that conservationists have tied the Forest Service up in knots and prevented the removal of all this built-up fuel. The facts and the General Accounting Office (GAO) say otherwise. The GAO reports that only 1 percent of fuel reduction projects was appealed last year. Environmental laws are NOT the problem. The problem is the Forest Service's steadfast refusal to address the problem where it exists-and where so many Americans paid so dearly this summer. That place is where the forest meets homes and communities. The timber industry, and thus today's Forest Service, would rather cut large, old trees in remote areas than confront the deadly problem that this summer damaged so many homes and lives. TAKE ACTION NOW! Please call the White House comment line today at 202-456-1111. We've provided suggested talking points, below, or send your own letter to: President George W. Bush [log in to unmask] TALKING POINTS (202-456-1111) -I strongly oppose the "Healthy Forests Initiative." It would not protect communities from fire and would serve only to weaken environmental laws. -I believe we can protect homes and communities without sacrificing the health of our forests to do so. -Scientists and many policy makers agree. In fact, your administration has already endorsed the collaborative, science-based strategy crafted by the Western Governors' Assn. last May. All who signed the plan, including your Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture, agreed that fire risks could be reduced without any change to existing law. Now you propose such drastic changes. -You failed to make environmentalists scapegoats for this summer's fires. Now you are blaming some of our most basic environmental laws and simultaneously giving the timber industry the free hand it has always demanded on our National Forests. -This initiative is **unhealthy ** --for forests, for communities at risk of wild fire and for your own credibility. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask]