[alert from Mobilize Globally - Will] ----- forwarded message ----- Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2000 13:46:19 +0100 From: "secr(MG!)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: ALERT: Administration Weakens NW Forest Plan to Ramp Up Old Growth Logging ----- forwarded message ----- Subject: [gaia-l] ALERT: Administration Weakens NW Forest Plan to Ramp Up Old Growth Logging Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2000 08:28:24 -0400 (AST) From: Mark Graffis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: all <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: All Activists From: Steve Holmer Date: November 29, 2000 Subject: Administration Weakens Northwest Forest Plan to Ramp Up Old Growth Logging Last week the Forest Service released the Final Survey and Manage EIS in response to court decisions that have halted old growth logging in the Northwest for the past year. The Administration's shameful proposal to weaken wildlife protection in the Pacific Northwest is likely to open the door to a significant increase in old growth logging. In the EIS, the BLM and Forest Service are dropping 63 species from the Survey and Manage program, including 20 from the list of species that need surveys "prior to ground disturbing activities." This opens up at least 400,000 acres of older forests to logging and will boost timber harvest up to roughly 740 million board feet a year in the western Cascades. It is very disappointing that the Administration is still clinging to outmoded and unrealistic timber targets that will require the liquidation of 50% of the Northwest's remaining old growth forests over the next two decades. The real costs in terms of polluted drinking water, reduced salmon stocks and lost biodiversity cannot be calculated. Please contact White House Chief of Staff John Podesta and let him know how disappointed you are that the Administration would weaken the Northwest Forest Plan to allow for more old growth logging. He can be reached at The White House, Washington, D.C. 20500, phone 202/456-6797, fax 456-1121. The following is a brief sample letter that can be faxed in. Dear Chief of Staff Podesta, I am writing to express my deep concern about the increased ancient forest logging allowed under the recently released Survey and Manage FSEIS. While only a tiny fraction of our original ancient forests remain, the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are more intent on cutting the last of our oldest trees down than protecting them. Unless we work quickly to preserve the last of the public's mature and old growth forests, another million acres of these precious forests will be cut down in the next two or three decades. As a citizen and a voter, I think cutting down any more of these forests is unacceptable. The Northwest's economy has undergone an amazing transition since the logging cutbacks of the early 1990's. Public lands timber accounts for less than 10% of the region's wood output and less than 1/5 of one percent of the region's employment. Meanwhile, market forces are moving towards old growth preservation as corporations such as Home Depot, Kinko's and many other Fortune 500 companies are eliminating their use of old growth wood. Unlogged older forests are clearly more valuable when protecting our clean water and air, habitat for salmon and other rare creatures, and recreational opportunities than when they are cut down for 2 x 4's and office paper. BLM Proposing to Log Three Spotted Owl Nest Trees Amid Weyerhaeuser Wasteland Coos-Bay BLM in Oregon is proposing the Cedar Creek Timber Sale which threatens to kill three nesting pairs of endangered Spotted owls. The sale would cut 189 acres of public forest, nestled within the 209,000 acres Weyerhaeuser Millicoma tree farm, a virtual wastelands of clearcuts and tree plantations. The sale will clearcut in the few remaining parcels of intact forest scattered amid the devastation. The sale proposal states that "8 of 27 northern spotted owl sites (30%) either within the subwatershed or whose home range overlaps it could be affected by the proposed action." In other words, clearcutting this 189 acres will do more than just outright kill 3 pairs of nesting owls � it will negatively impact 30% of all spotted owls in this section of the Coos Bay watershed. Comments are being accepted until Dec. 11. For pictures of the sale area and more information see http://www.umpqua-watersheds.org/blm/blmcoosbay.html or call Francis Eatherington, Umpqua Watersheds Inc. at 541/673-7649. Comments can be sent to Umpqua Resource Area, Coos Bay District Office, BLM, 1300 Airport Lane, North Bend, OR 97459 or mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Calls can be made to Terri Colby, BLM, 541/756-0100. Environmental Groups Petition to List Fisher as Endangered The Center for Biological Diversity, Oregon Natural Resources Council, American Lands and 15 other environmental groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today to list the fisher as an endangered species in its West Coast Range. The Fish and Wildlife Service now has one year to determine if the fisher merits endangered status. A relative of the mink and otter, the fisher is absent or severely reduced across a substantial portion of its West Coast Range. Only three small, isolated populations of the fisher remain, including native populations in northern California and the southern Sierra Nevada and a reintroduced population in the southern Oregon Cascades. "The small size and isolation of remaining fisher populations in combination with continued habitat loss from logging and development places the fisher in immediate danger of extinction," concludes Noah Greenwald, a Conservation Biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity and the primary author of the petition. The Fisher is closely associated with old-growth forests that according to numerous studies have declined by 60-85% across California, Oregon and Washington. Because the fisher cannot fly over logged areas, it is many ways more sensitive to logging of old forests than the spotted owl, which has been at the center of controversy over forest management for more than a decade. "Current management plans, such as the Northwest Forest Plan, that were designed primarily for the spotted owl, marbled murrelet and salmon are inadequate to ensure the survival and recovery of the fisher," states Doug Heiken, Western Oregon Field Representative for Oregon Natural Resources Council. Endangered status for the fisher requires protection for old-growth forests, benefitting the entire ecosystem. Listing would also provide additional funding for research and boost efforts to reintroduce the fisher into parts of its range where it no longer occurs. For more information contact Noah Greenwald, Center for Biodiversity: 520-623-5252 x. 309 or Doug Heiken, Oregon Natural Resources Council: 541-344-0675. The petition and other information can be found at http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/fisher/fisher.html Steve Holmer Campaign Coordinator American Lands 726 7th Street SE Washington, D.C. 20003 202/547-9105 202/547-9213 fax mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.americanlands.org To subscribe or unsubscribe please send a message to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
