Forwarded by Jane Clark
========================================================
Action Alert: Tongass Old-Growth Ripoff
White House Comment Line - 202-456-1111
White House Fax Line - 202-456-2461
Clinton's e-mail - [log in to unmask]
Gore's e-mail - [log in to unmask]
White House Address - 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC 20500
Tell the Clinton Administration to SAY NO to timber giant Louisiana
Pacific's request for a special deal to log old-growth at taxpayer expense.
=========================================================
In the past few weeks, Oregon-based Louisiana Pacific, the parent company
of
Alaska's Ketchikan Pulp Company (KPC), has been in Washington, DC lobbying
for a new special deal to log old-growth in the Tongass National Forest.
The corporation, backed by Alaska's powerful Congressional Delegation,
wants
a guarantee for logging rights to large amounts of Tongass old-growth at
subsidized rates.
Such logging would occur in Tongass roadless areas, threatening the brown
bears, wolves, and other species that depend on these areas. Such a deal
would also prevent the Clinton Administration from making a good decision
on
the Tongass Land Management Plan, which could protect these remaining
roadless areas. The Clinton Administration is set to make decisions on
both
these issues as early as NEXT WEEK.
Conservationists thought this battle was over in February of 1997, when the
Clinton Administration signed a deal to end the last of the long-term
timber
contracts in the Tongass. In that deal, U.S. taxpayers paid Louisiana
Pacific $135 million and gave the corporation rights to log 300 million
board feet of Tongass timber through the end of 1999, to keep its Alaska
sawmills operating. Now LP is saying the deal wasn't enough and that they
need more special privileges. LP has been an irresponsible corporate
citizen
that doesn't deserve any special concessions to continue clearcutting
Tongass old-growth.
TELL THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION TO SAY NO TO LP!
email and fax the President's Chief of Staff, John Podesta
202 456-6798 phone, 202 456-1121 fax
John Podesta, Chief of Staff
The White House
1st Floor, West Wing
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington DC 20502
Re: Alaska's Tongass National Forest
We understand you will soon be making a decision on timber issues in the
Tongass National Forest. We urge you to oppose ALL requests from Louisiana
Pacific and the Alaska Congressional Delegation. Do not reopen the deal you
already finalized with the closure of the Ketchikan Pulp Mill. We also
hope
the Forest Service makes a good decision on the Tongass Land Management
Plan
and protects the remaining roadless areas of the forest.
(your name, address and email address)
=====================================================
Update on Louisiana Pacific's attempts to grab Tongass old-growth
Economics and demand predict a changing timber industry in Alaska - an
industry that will have to focus more on value-added products rather than
mass exports of round logs. Louisiana Pacific is still hopeful it will be
able to squeeze taxpayer subsidies out of the government, so we should keep
our faxes and calls coming to important Clinton Administration officials.
Conservationists report that Louisiana Pacific is asking the Clinton
Administration for a number of freebies, but that so far administration
officials are just saying NO. Nothing is on paper, but what we've heard is
that LP wants a one-year extension to log the remainder of the 300 million
board feet currently under contract, they want up to $11 million dollars
worth of some sort of credit to build roads to Tongass timber that wasn't
bought last year (85% of the volume), and they want a multi-year guaranteed
supply of new subsidized Tongass old-growth to support a new veneer
facility
in southeast Alaska. Further, LP wants to codify any special deal it
receives into law, thereby re-enacting the monopoly contracts that were
eliminated in the Tongass with the closure of the pulp mills.
As part of its 1997 contract, LP said it was "committed" to clean up
Ketchikan's environmental mess. So far, little cleanup has taken place at
Ketchikan Pulp Company's (KPC) Ward Cove site, where more than 18,000 logs
have sunk to the bottom of the ocean, embedded in a foot of sludge which is
toxic to all marine life. In addition, KPCs dioxin-filled landfill is
unlined, and continues to ooze into Ward Cove. Further, KPC operated
multiple log-transfer facilities throughout southeast Alaska's hundreds of
islands, which also dropped bark and logs onto the ocean floor, smothering
ocean life. No cleanup is expected any time soon.
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