Let's hold our elected officials accountable.
Pick up the phone to protect the ESA. Let the halls of Congress ring on Nov. 4.
Congressional Switchboard 1-888/723-5246 (toll-free)
All across the country folks will be calling for a stronger Endangered Species Act. Senator Kempthorne's bill S.1180 would jeopardize the mission of the ESA to recover species in peril.
Please call the switchboard between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m PST, ask for Sen. Murray's office, tell her not to support Kempthorne's bill, and then call back to repeat the process for Sen. Gorton. If the toll-free number stays busy, you can call their offices directly (before 8 a.m. is very cheap):
Sen. Murray - 202/224-2621; fax 202/224-0238; e-mail: senator_murray@murray.senate.gov
Sen. Gorton - 202/224-3441; fax 202/224-9393 e-mail: senator_gorton@gorton.senate gov
Kempthorne's bill would provide:
A better bill has been introduced in the House. HR 2351 (the Miller bill) would reaffirm and strengthen the nation's commitment to wildlife and to protect our children's future. It is estimated we are losing approximately 100 species every day. Rather than weaken protection for fragile plants and animals, Congress should strengthen the ESA, so species do not slip through loopholes and cracks in the current ESA.
HR 2351 would:
Representative Norm Dicks is already a co-sponsor of HR 2351 (at last count). If you have friends or relatives in other districts, ask them to call their Representatives through the switchboard, to confirm or encourage their co-sponsorship of HR 2351.
The Sierra Club reports that on Oct. 28 the Senate passed an Interior Appropriations bill containing anti-environmental riders. The President is now considering whether or not to veto it. Please call or e-mail the White House, and ask President Clinton to veto the Interior Appropriations bill until all anti-environmental riders are removed. The White House is our last line of defense against these harmful riders becoming law. If these riders become law, it will open the floodgates to many more attacks on our public lands and environment.
The Western Ancient Forest Campaign (WAFC) confirms that thirteen anti-environmental riders remain in the Interior Appropriations bill, threatening forests, rangelands, endangered species and the Clinton Administration's ability to adopt needed management reforms. The White House is expected to make a decision soon to veto or to sign the bill.
Working Assets ran a full-page ad in the New York Times on Wed., Oct. 29, announcing free calls to the White House Comment Line to urge the President to "Stand-Up" on a host of issues of urgent social concern. The toll-free number is 1-888/387-8263, effective from 6 a.m. - 2 p.m. PST. This number will be available through Monday, and possibly longer, so please give it a try Tuesday as well. Please call and urge the President to veto the Interior Appropriations bill.
President Clinton's e-mail: president@whitehouse.gov
Vice-President Al Gore's e-mail: vice-president@whitehouse.gov
Also contact Representative Norm Dicks (or who-ever your Rep. is) at that Capitol Switchboard number of 1-888/723-5246 and urge him (or her) to support a veto of the Interior Appropriations bill to stop these destructive attacks on our forests.
Forest Service Will Auction Off Natural Heritage November 5
The Northwest Ecosystem Alliance reports that on November 5, the U.S. Forest Service plans to sell off one of Washington's most cherished places. At a public auction in the Forest Supervisor's office in Okanogan, the government will take bids for the first of two Long Draw timber sales -- devastating cuts that would push further roading and logging into the unprotected wilderness bordering the southeastern edge of Washington's Pasayten Wilderness Area. The second sale is to be auctioned before the end of the year.
The Long Draw I and II timber sales would harm numerous rare and sensitive wildlife species including grizzly bear, lynx, gray wolf, wolverine, pacific fisher and pine marten. The area's pristine streams may support one of the last pure strains of redband trout in the mid-Columbia basin, along with westslope cutthroat trout and other sensitive fish. These outstanding natural values were recognized by a re-cent government study of the interior Columbia basin, which identified the entire Long Draw area as a hotspot of biodiversity.
The Long Draw sales are near the infamous Thunder Mountain timber sale, which was recently logged under the Salvage Rider. Combined, the sales would log 10 million board feet over 1,036 acres and construct 12.3 miles of new road into unprotected wilderness, rebuilding 10 more miles of currently closed roads. Despite the area's abundance of wet, boggy lands, all logging would be ground-based, which is most harmful to soils.
It is clearly time the Administration got involved and stopped the Forest Service before it kills again. Please call Senator Patty Murray; Governor Gary Locke; Kathleen McGinty, Director of the President's Council for Environmental Quality; the Office of Management and Budget; and the Forest Service. Ask them to CANCEL THE LONG DRAW TIMBER SALE NOW.
For more information contact: Evan Frost, Staff Ecologist, Northwest Ecosystem Alliance, 509/997-9398; or efrost@methow.com
WAFC reports that in a move to protect what habitat remains on National Forests and other federal public lands, Reps. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and Jim Leach (R-IA) will introduce the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act ("NFPRA") into Congress, probably on Oct. 31.
"For one hundred years timber companies have been allowed to profit from our public forest lands at the expense of other critical purposes for our forests -- providing wildlife habitat, recreation and water quality protection," said Chad Hanson of the Sierra Club.
The bill will end the timber sales program on National Forests, Bureau of Land Management lands, and National Wildlife Refuges nationwide, phasing it out over two years. It will also redirect timber subsidies into worker retraining, ecological restoration (with a hiring preference for dislocated timber workers), and deficit reduction. Supporters of the bill are calling their Representatives and urging them to become original cosponsors of the legislation. For more information, please contact Chad Hanson of the Sierra Club, 202/547-1141; chadhanson@juno.com
On Sept. 17 the Senate voted 51-49 to continue subsidies for logging road construction on an amendment offered by Sen. Richard Bryan (D-NV). The vote would have been 50-50 but Sen. Bryan switched his vote to "no" in order to allow for the possibility of a revote. If Vice President Al Gore had been present he could have cast the tie-breaking vote giving us a 51-50 victory.
Senator Patty Murray supported the amendment. (Your phone calls do help!)
Initially figures of 8-10 million board feet(MMBF) per year were estimated, resulting in 75 MMBF of Probable Sale Quantity (PSQ) over the eight years. Now, new XSQ (Xtra Sale Quantity) figures add 98.3 MMBF to the PSQ, resulting in 173.3 MMBF possible over the timespan. This could range from 19.6 to 25 MMBF per year for the Olympic NF.
The new harvest figures are based on thinning in Riparian Reserves within the Adaptive Management Area, and thinning in the Late-Successional Reserves, both in Riparian Reserves and not.
So, be sure to reserve your assumptions about what the word "Reserve" means...
Call 360/385-6271 for information about these issues.
QUAFCO News Oct./Nov. 1997 Copyright © 1997, Quilcene
Ancient Forest Coalition
All rights reserved. Page developed by Berry Hill
Software LONG DRAW TIMBER SALE THREATENS RARE WILDLIFE
BIPARTISAN BILL TO END FEDERAL TIMBER PROGRAM TO BE INTRODUCED
OLD NEWS:
For those of you who may not have tracked how the Senate Bryan amendment vote turned out:
THERE'S ALWAYS MORE...:
The Olympic National Forest has analyzed its near-future harvest estimate and has determined it can potentially increase the level by 231% over the next eight years.