Please contact your Senators today with this action alert. They will vote Thursday, June 26, and again next month on whether to protect our National Forests. Problem: The so-called "Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003" passed the House and is now in the Senate Agriculture Committee. Under this legislation, the Forest Service could log old-growth forests just by asserting that it is necessary for fuels reduction or to combat beetles--and the bill restricts our right to comment on any environmental consequences of the project. Solution: Senators Coleman and Dayton both sit on the Agriculture Committee which will hear this bill on Thursday, June 26. Then they will vote again next month if the bill goes to the full Senate. Deadline for responding: Please take action by Thursday, June 26. ***************************************** Message to senators: The Bush Administration continues to use last year's dramatic fire season--and now the fires commencing this summer--to advance timber industry proposals. However, forest scientists--including Forest Service researchers--have repeatedly found that the type of logging proposed by HR 1904 can actually increase fire risk. Minnesota's Superior and Chippewa National Forests are revising forest plans right now--including plans for 7,373 acres of prescribed burns annually, and 42,000 acres of fuel reduction management annually. Why legislate this from Washington, when the local process is already working on the ground with input from local loggers, industries, and concerned citizens? Please reject HR 1904, the so-called "Healthy Forests" bill, in the Senate Agriculture Committee, and in any debate on the Senate floor. Please recognize that this bill is a giveaway to multinational timber and paper companies. It will not help Minnesota workers, and is bad for Minnesota's forests. * HR 1904 does not protect communities at risk from forest fire, by prioritizing fuel-reduction projects near them. * The bill weakens our most important environmental protection, the National Environmental Policy Act, by allowing the Forest Service to conduct large, environmentally damaging logging projects without considering any alternatives or their relative environmental impacts. * It would exclude the public from decisions made about public lands and eliminate the statutory right of citizens to appeal Forest Service logging projects. * HR 1904 would impose unprecedented limitations on judicial review and give lawsuits challenging Forest Service projects priority over virtually all other civil and criminal litigation. **************************** Thank you! Have a great day, Joshua Davis Forestry Organizer, Sierra Club 2327 Franklin Ave, Suite 1 Minneapolis, MN 55406 612-659-9124 612-659-9129 FAX Erin E. Jordahl Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club 3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280 Des Moines, IA 50310 515-277-8868 [log in to unmask] www.iowa.sierraclub.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask]