Sierra Club’s Bluestem Action Alert for October, 2002

River Prairie Group

Please call Senators Peter Fitzgerald and Dick Durban and ask them to co-sponsor the Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2002, S. 2790.

You can call your two U.S. senators by calling the capitol switchboard in Washington D.C. at 202-224-3121 and asking for them by name. Or you can make a local call to Senator Durbin in Chicago at 312-353-4952. The local number for Senator Fitzgerald is 312-886-3506.

The Roadless Area Conservation Act is a bipartisan bill that will protect nearly 60 million acres of our National Forests - some of our nation’s last remaining wildlife sanctuaries. To date, over half our nation’s national forests have been damaged by clearcut logging and roadbuilding. More than 400,000 miles of roads in our national forests have already been built by logging and mining industries and paid for by U.S. taxpayers. The Roadless area Conservation Act will stop this destruction by halting new road building in areas that are still wild and pristine.

This bill will also keep special interests from undoing one of the most important conservation measures in our nation’s history - the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule was adopted by the U.S. Forest Service under the Clinton administration after one of the most extensive public comment periods ever- more than 600 public hearings and a record-breaking 1.6 million public comments - virtually all in favor of the Roadless rule. Under the Bush administration, however, the Forest Service has delayed and dismantled this popular rule. First the public comment period was re-opened. Another 60,000 comments, almost all in favor of the roadless rule poured in. But under the Bush Administration, the Forest Service issued a series of directives that would allow the forest industry to fast-track destructive logging projects, bypassing environmental review and public in-put, even if logging will harm endangered species or spoil a roadless area. The Forest Service has left each national forest free to continue building logging and mining roads at taxpayer expense.

Congressional action is needed now to implement the Roadless Rule. We can ensure that our national forests will be there for our children and our children’s children to enjoy. We can preserve the last remaining roadless areas of our national forest system from destructive roadbuilding.

Please call your senators today.