Shawnee Group of the Sierra Club
Outings Newsletter Local Action Resources Membership
Shawnee Group of the Sierra Club
Outings Newsletter Local Action Resources Membership
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National |
 | Clean Air |
| Energy |
| Population |
| Wildlands |
TAKE PART NOW IN THE ROADLESS AREA PROTECTION PROCESS!
By Barbara McKasson, Conservation Chair
On January 22, 1998, the U.S. Forest Service announced that it will be revising its management of the massive 370,000 mile road network (not including the 60,000 miles of "ghost roads" recently revealed by the Forest Service) on National Forest lands. This new, long-term policy will determine the fate of the last remaining unprotected wild areas in our National Forests.
The Forest Service has not set a firm time line for the process of developing this new long-term policy, but the agency's goal is to complete it by the time the interim moratorium expires (approximately 18 months), or sooner. The Forest Service has opened a 60-day public comment period on this proposal. (Notice in Federal Register on January 28, 1998 is on Forest Service website at: http://www.fs.fed.us)
If it is based on science, a long-term roads/roadless area policy should implement a permanent moratorium on road building and other destructive activities - not create new loopholes to allow for more road building and logging in the last remaining roadless areas. The new long-term policy also needs to identify how the Forest Service will undertake the monumental task of maintaining a crumbling road network with, according to the agency, a $10 billion (that's right, billion) is needed for repairs and maintenance. Removal of excess roads, and rehabilitating watersheds and streams damaged by road building and road erosion should also be emphasized in the agency's long-term policy.
TALKING/WRITING POINTS
1. America's last remaining wild, unroaded forests are special places that protect our water quality, and fish and wildlife habitat. These scarce roadless areas are irreplaceable and deserve permanent protection. The Forest Service has for too long allowed the timber industry to dominate America's National Forests. In order to rebuild public confidence, the agency should use this opportunity to protect the last vestiges of our wild forest legacy for future generations.
2. The Forest Service's long-term roadless area policy should prohibit road building, logging and other destructive activities from all roadless areas 1,000 acres or larger. This is especially important in eastern forests. The current proposal of 5,000 acres or less would apply to few, if any, areas in eastern forests.
3. Important areas such as the Tongass National Forest and the Pacific Northwest should be included in the policy. These two areas are currently excluded.
WHAT YOU CAN DO!!
1. Please submit comments on the long-term Roadless Area Protection policy by March 30, 1998 to: Gerald Coghlan, Acting Director, Engineering Staff, Forest Service, USDA, P.O. Box 96090, Washington, D.C. 20090-6090.
Comments may also be sent by e-mail to: roads/wo@fs.fed.us
If you want more information from the Forest Service, contact: Rhey Solomon, Ecosystem Management Coordination Staff, (202) 205-0939.Also, check out the Sierra Club web page.
2. A.S.A.P. Call and ask your U.S. Representative to sign the "Kennedy-McDermott Dear Colleague Letter", which supports protection of roadless areas in our national forests. You can call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
Congressman Joe Kennedy (D-MA), one of our champions for ending taxpayer-funded subsidies for logging roads in our National Forests, along with Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA), is taking up the cause of fighting to protect the last remaining unroaded forests by circulating a "dear colleague" letter that will be sent to President Clinton. Although the final text is not yet out, the letter is expected to thank the Administration for addressing this critical issue. The letter also calls
for a "time out" while developing a long-term policy to protect roadless areas. It urges for action to be taken to correct several shortcomings in the Forest Service proposal such as the exception of important regions like the Tongass National Forest (in Alaska), the Pacific Northwest and roadless areas less than 1,000 acres. Getting strong Congressional support for protecting our last remaining roadless areas is essential to assuring the Administration's final policy is a good one. We can expect timber-industry friends in Congress to try to kill this Administration initiative. So
please call/write/e-mail today!
The Last Great Wilderness presentation on February 16th drew a crowd of 150 at SIU. All of us who saw the show and heard Lenny Kohm's presentation know how critical an environmental and human rights battle protection of the Refuge poses. Joe Tetlichi, a member of the Gwich'in tribe, is touring with Lenny. He spoke to the audience about the importance of protecting the Refuge and the Porcupine Caribou Herd that uses the Refuge for its calving grounds. The 7,000 member Gwich'in tribe's subsistence way of life depends on protecting the Refuge from oil drilling.
Please write our elected representatives in Washington. Congressman Costello who has been a sponsor of an Arctic Wilderness Bill in the past is not currently a sponsor. His support is very important. Senators Mosley-Braun and Durbin are both sponsors and letters of thanks to them are needed.
Keep the pressure on!!
To Help Save the Refuge, here are some sample points that you can make in your letters to Congress:
a) Oil drilling will destroy the wilderness values of the last untouched stretch of the US. Arctic coastal plain.
b) Oil drilling will result in a significant drop in the numbers of caribou, musk-oxen, grizzlies, polar bears, wolverines, and nesting birds that thrive on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
c) Because oil drilling will seriously affect the numbers and migration route of the Porcupine Caribou Heard, the Gwich'in people who have depended on the caribou for thousands of years will face cultural annihilation.
d) It is a mistake to destroy this area with oil exploration and development when other oil-saving strategies have not been pursued, e.g.; raising automobile efficiency standards, developing alcohol fuels, building better mass transit, encouraging alternative sources such as; solar, wind, etc.
Ask Congressman Costello to support HR900 that would designate the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska as a wilderness area. Please thank our Senators for their support. The Senate version is S531.
Congressman Jerry Costello
House Office Building
Washington D.C. 20515
Senator Durbin and Senator Mosley Braun
Senate Office Building
Washington D.C. 20510
The Last Great Wilderness Project
P.O. Box 102
Todd, NC 28684 910-877-1551.
LGW1@SKYBEST.COM
To register for the trip or for more information call Nelda Hinckley at (618) 549-5588 or 549-7335, Ext. 323.
There are more than 510 species of plants and animals on the Illinois Endangered Species list.
You can help save Illinois wildlife by giving a donation to the Illinois Wildlife Preservation Fund on your Illinois Income Tax Return. Donate dollars to keep the birds, the fish, the flowers, and the butterflies from vanishing.
Line 15a, IL-1040 on the state income tax form. Line 7a on the IL-1040 EZ simple form.
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