CALL YOUR SENATOR AT THE DC SWITCHBOARD (202) 224 3121 FUTURE OF FOREST PROTECTION AT STAKE Our Senators need to hear from you on this week. Tell them to oppose the Craig/Domenici Healthy Forest Initiative amendment, uphold environmental laws and make community protection the priority under the National Fire Plan. This vote could take place on Wednesday, September 4. Our wild forests are in danger! A cynical ploy to use this summer's spate of fires as an excuse to gut crucial forest protections could come up for a vote in Congress tomorrow. The plan does nothing to protect communities threatened by fires, and instead opens up more of our wild forests for commercial logging. We need your help. Contact our senators and urge them to oppose the Craig-Domenici amendment on forest fires. Instead, they should support legislation that: 1) makes protecting communities from fires the number one priority 2) protects our forests from logging and road-building 3) upholds crucial forest safeguards Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224 3121. Ask for your senators. Deliver the message. Help protect our wild forests. WHAT IS AT STAKE Over the past eight weeks, forest fire issues have taken on increasing urgency. President Bush's "Healthy Forest Initiative" announced last Thursday has dramatically changed the course of the debate. No matter what forest conservation issue that you care about - whether it is wilderness designation, roadless area protection, forest and watershed restoration or old growth protection - the pending vote on the Senate Interior Appropriations will effect your ability to protect and defend your forest. In addition, we still expect Senators Craig, Domenici and others to introduce an amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill when the Senate begins consideration of the Interior Appropriations bill on September 4th. Specific language has not been available so it is unclear how far or how bad the amendment will be, but the President's plan provides a good indication of what the amendment could look like. At stake is: - Suspension of environmental laws. If the amendment goes as far as the Black Hills rider, we could see a suspension of all environmental laws similar to what happened with the now infamous salvage logging rider. Millions of acres of green trees were logged in the name of salvage. - Removing public participation from federal land management decisions. The administrative appeals process - citizens' basic right to be involved in forest management decisions could be eliminated or curtailed. - Aggressive "thinning" across millions of acres of backcountry forests miles away from communities. - Authorization of stewardship contracting authorities including "goods for services". This provision will allow logging companies and the Forest Service to log large fire resistant trees to pay for hazardous fuel work. Logging large fire resistant trees increases the risk of fire severity, and lets the commodity value of the timber drive logging to the backcountry where the bigger trees are located. - Increased logging of mature and old growth in the Pacific Northwest. Bush's plan supports legislation to increase timber sales west of the Cascades by "removing needless administrative obstacles" to allow logging of mature and old growth forests. This move would essentially reinstate timber targets for the west side "owl forests". MEDIA SEES THOUGH BUSH'S SMOKESCREEN Fortunately, the media is seeing right through the logging smokescreen. The majority of the media coverage and editorials across the country are calling it as they see it: The healthy forests initiative is a blatant giveaway to the President's timber industry friends that will log larger fire resistant trees in the name of hazardous fuels reduction. Bush's plan can actually increase fire risk and is sure to continue public controversy. CALLS TO SENATORS NEEDED We expect that Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD) will bring a substitute to Craig/Domenici amendment. CALL YOUR SENATOR AT THE DC SWITCHBOARD 202.224.3121 AND URGE THEM TO SUPPORT LEGISLATION THAT WILL: 1. Make community protection from fire risks the priority under the National Fire Plan. Appropriate adequate funds to do the work where it will do the most good. Appropriate $2 billion per year for five years for community protection. 2. Direct 90% of the fuel reduction funding immediately adjacent to homes in the Community Protection Zone - not in the backcountry. The best Forest Service fire science research indicates that the most effective way to protect homes is to clear flammable fuels within 100-200 feet of the home and up to a maximum of 500 meters to ensure firefighter safety. Unfortunately, the Forest Service continues to ignore their own research and spends the majority of their fireproofing resources far away from this zone. Currently, about two-thirds of the acres treated for hazardous fuels are miles away from the Community Protection Zone. 3. Oppose any legislation that would waive environmental laws or judicial reviews and increase logging in wild areas, far away from homes and communities. There is no need to suspend or weaken environmental laws to carry out legitimate fuels reduction adjacent to communities. 4. Provide that 75% of hazardous fuel funding go directly to state/tribal fire assistance. More than eighty percent of the high-risk areas in the Community Protection Zone is in private ownership. These funds should be used for public education and outreach on making homes "firewise," homeowner cost share grants, seed money for community protection, and treatment of non-federal lands in the Community Zone. 5. Oppose stewardship contracting authorities that would allow the logging of large fire resistant trees to pay for hazardous fuel work. CALL EARLY AND CALL OFTEN. With your help we can defeat the Craig/Domenici amendment. Thanks for all your of your incredible work !!!!! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - For SC email list T-and-C, send: GET TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS.CURRENT to [log in to unmask]