December 17, 2008 
Contact: Randi Spivak, American Lands Alliance, 310.779.4894

Conservation Groups Call on the Agriculture Sec. Nominee to Set New Direction for Forest Service; Reverse Bush's Damaging Legacy in the First 100 Days 

President Elect Obama announced today the nomination of former Governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack as the new Secretary of Agriculture.  

Nearly 100 conservation organizations representing over 1.5 million members and citizens from around the country call on Vilsack to reverse damaging policies promulgated by the Bush administration and set a new course for the U.S. Forest Service. 

"Most people don't know that 193 million acres of National Forest System lands are overseen by the Department of Agriculture, said Randi Spivak, executive director of American Lands Alliance. "Forest ecosystems are very different from agriculture crops. These forests are our natural capital that provide clean water, filter the air we breathe, provide habitat for wildlife and fish, flood protection, sequester tremendous amounts of carbon and offer world-class recreation opportunities."

The Forest Conservation Community National Forest Priorities for the New Administrationrecommends a set of high-priority national forest conservation issues for early action beginning in the first 100 days and lays out a vision for shifting the priority of federal land management agencies to managing public lands for ecological sustainability and developing green jobs to restore our public forests and watersheds. 

"National Forest System lands and the Forest Service often operate under conflicting policy mandates with timber, mining, oil and gas development, motorized recreation and grazing allowed to harm natural resources at the expense of both the environment and the taxpayers," continued Spivak. 

"We hope to see a new direction and vision for the agency," said Spivak. "We look to the new administration to set a high bar for protecting and restoring our nations' forests and protecting wildlife. Our national forests should be managed for biodiversity, clean water and air, carbon sequestration, and appropriate recreation."

The hallmark of the Bush administration has been political interference in science to pave the way for extractive uses on public lands that puts numerous species at risk, and cuts the public out of the decision-making process on federal forests at the planning, project, and accountability levels. 

"The nation cannot begin to implement proactive policies to protect and restore public lands without first reversing the Bush administration's damaging environmental legacy," Spivak added. "Those actions and regulations dramatically reduced existing protections for federal forests, watersheds and wildlife, public participation, and scientific integrity."

The forest conservation community's top three recommendations include:

·         Development of a comprehensive climate policy for forests that shifts the management focus to ecological sustainability and prohibits logging of large, mature, and old-growth forests and trees on federal lands.

·         Reinstating strong ecosystem protections that reinstate the requirement that federal forest plans maintain viable populations of species and allow the public involvement, scrutiny and scientific accountability.

·         Restoring protections for America's roadless wild forests including on the Tongass National Forest.

These requests for early action fall mainly under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service, an agency of the Department of Agriculture. 

Click here to read the Forest Conservation Community National Forest Priorities for the New Administration.