----- forwarded message ----- Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2001 00:37:56 +0200 From: secr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Help prevent old growth logging in Canada ----- forwarded message ----- Subject: [gaia-l] Help prevent old growth logging in Canada Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2001 15:44:06 -0300 From: "Mark Graffis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2001 2:25 PM From: "Jason Tockman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> TO: ALL TRADE AND ENVIRONMENT ACTIVISTS FROM: JASON TOCKMAN, AMERICAN LANDS DATE: JULY 14, 2001 DEFAZIO-NORWOOD BILL WOULD LIMIT LOGGING OF CANADIAN OLD GROWTH FORESTS The Softwood Lumber Fair Competition Act ( H.R. 2181 ) would reduce the importation of Canadian ancient forests to the United States. The below Action Alert from our friends at the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance offers a couple of steps that you can take to help support the bill. PLEASE NOTE: FOR ORGANIZATIONAL SIGN-ONS, REPLY TO CHRIS DILLARD AT [EMAIL PROTECTED] =============================================== ACTION ITEMS: 1) Ask your representatives to support the Softwood Lumber Fair Competition Act ( H.R. 2181 ) (Capitol Hill Switchboard: 202/224-3121) 2) Sign your organization on to the letter at the bottom of this email. Contact Chris Dillard (360) 671-9950 ext 18 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] to sign on the letter. 3) Forward this message on to your list and other contacts. Representatives Peter Defazio (D-OR) and Charles Norwood (R-GA) have co-sponsored this bipartisan bill requiring president Bush to impose "quotas, tariff surcharges, negotiated enforceable voluntary export restraint agreements, or other measures" to reduce the level of Canadian imports to historic levels. We believe this Act would be an important step in addressing the environmental and economic subsidies Canada lavishes on its timber industry. These subsidies are leading to the destruction of huge swaths of old growth forests and the decline of many threatened and endangered species. In addition, US efforts to restore many threatened and endangered species (grizzly bear, salmon, woodland caribou, bull trout) are being undermined by Canadian logging practices. British Columbia continues to allow clear-cutting up to the banks of, and hauling logs through, small salmon streams. This practice violates both the Pacific Salmon Treaty and the Federal Fisheries Act. The same streams on National Forests in Washington receive 100 yard buffers. In just the last year, lumber prices declined 30 percent, over 160 U.S. mills have closed permanently or indefinitely, and thousands of American workers have lost their jobs. To see the text of the Act and for more information on the impacts of the US/Canada trade in softwood on our shared environment, first nations, and US mill workers visit our web site at: http://www.ecosystem.org/projects_softwoodlumber.html Your support is appreciated, Chris ########## Text of Sign-on Letter ############# Representative __________ US House of Representatives Washington, DC July 10, 2001 Dear Representatives _____________, The undersigned organizations ask that you support the Defazio-Norwood Softwood Lumber Fair Competition Act (H.R. 2181). The economic and environmental subsidies Canada offers their timber industry are severely impacting both our shared environment and the timber industry workers in the United States. We believe this Act would be an important step in addressing these concerns. The environmental subsidies have been well documented. Although British Columbia did institute a Forest Practices Code in 1996, the fact remains that the Code is both weak and largely not enforced.(1) For example, the Code allows clear-cutting up to the banks of, and hauling logs through, small fish bearing streams. On National Forests in Washington these same creeks are given a 100-yard buffer. In addition, provincial policy directives severely limit the amount biodiversity and species-at-risk protections can impact the Allowable Annual Cut.(2) On a federal level Canada has again failed to pass an Endangered Species Act and continues to ignore both its Fisheries Act and the Pacific Salmon Treaty, both of which provide for the protection of Salmon habitat. The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans has found that logging roads in British Columbia are destroying between 162,000 and 324,000 square meters of fish habitat every year.(3) The lack of enforcement of these laws and treaties coupled with lax forest practices constitutes a subsidy to the timber industry. British Columbia also offers its forest products industry significant economic subsidies. Companies are required to cut a predetermined volume of timber, regardless or market conditions, and receive long term tenure agreements that eliminate competition. These agreements necessitate administratively set pricing schemes that enable companies access to public timber for fees that are well below market value. Recent studies by Sierra Legal Defense Fund have found that one third of the public lands trees were sold in B.C for .25 cents/cubic meter or $10 a truckload.(4) These practices, along with other pricing and tenure arrangements, have lead to a glut of wood, driving down prices, and ultimately mill closures and job loss in the US. These subsidies make some of the wildest and most remote areas of BC economically viable to log. The impact of this habitat destruction is being felt in the United States. British Columbia's logging practices are compromising U.S. efforts to recover critically endangered species, such as the grizzly bear, bull trout, salmon, and woodland caribou. These species, protected by the US Endangered Species Act, are dependent on habitat and range in Canada for their continued survival in the United States. The Defazio-Norwood Softwood Lumber Fair Competition Act requires the President to adjust for these subsidies at the border. The removal of these subsidies will reduce the economic viability of logging in remote and ecologically sensitive forests, thereby protecting the habitat of the aforementioned species. The imposition of the duties, or other mechanisms to account for these subsidies, will also provide a significant incentive for Canada to begin enforcing its Fisheries Act and to honor the Pacific Salmon Treaty and Canada's international conservation commitments. Please support the Defazio-Norwood Softwood Lumber Fair Competition Act. Sincerely, YOUR ORGANIZATION HERE! Footnotes: 1 Between 1997 and 2001 50% of the audits of logging operations done by the BC Forest Practices Board found "Significant Non-Compliance." See: http://www.fpb.gov.bc.ca/reports_audit.htm#active2000 2 Respectively 4% and 1% 3 Harper, D.J. and Quigley J.T. 2000. No Net Loss of Fish Habitat: An Audit of Forest Road Crossings of Fish-Bearing Streams in British Columbia, 1996-1999. Habitat and Enhancement Branch Fisheries and Oceans Canada. 4 Anderson, M. and Werring, J. 2001 Stumpage Sellout: How forest company abuse of the stumpage system is costing B.C. taxpayers millions. Sierra Legal Defense Fund. Chris Dillard - Conservation Associate Ph: (360) 671-9950 x18 Northwest Ecosystem Alliance Fax: (360) 671-8429 1421 Cornwall Ave., Suite 201 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Bellingham, WA 98225 www.ecosystem.org --------------------------------------------- Jason Tockman, Director International Trade Program American Lands Alliance PO Box 555 Athens, OH 45701 (740) 594-5441
