The Loma Prietan
February-March 2003
Bush Administration Poised to Assault Our National Forests
by Douglas Bevington, National Volunteer Outreach Liaison for the Sierra Club's National Forest Committee
Emboldened by the November elections, the timber industry and its government allies are pushing the worst assault on our forests since the Reagan era. After last summer's fires in the drought-stricken parts of the West, the Bush administration launched the Orwellian "Healthy Forests Initiative" to dramatically increase commercial logging. Industry allies Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) and Rep. Scott McInnis (R-CO) have each introduced similar bills based on two key ruses:
Ruse #1: Commercial logging is needed to prevent fires.
Scientists have consistently found commercial logging to harm forests and to increase both fire risk and severity. More than 200 esteemed scientists have called on Bush to halt all commercial logging activities in national forests. The Forest Service's own researchers have shown that protection of houses in forested areas depends almost entirely on clearing nearby underbrush, not on wildlands logging. (For more information on forest protection and fire, see: www.sierraclub.org/logging.)
The administration, however, has ignored this research and focused on commercial logging, leaving forests and homeowners at risk of fire. A recent review of current "emergency hazardous fuels" projects in Sierra Nevada national forests found over 90% of the funds to be subsidizing commercial timber sales rather than removal of hazardous underbrush. Cynically, logging proponents have tried to blame environmentalists for the blazes. This leads to the second major ruse.
Ruse #2: Public participation hampers forest management.
"Healthy Forests" supporters have consistently sought to curtail public input to forestry decisions and to eliminate use of the courts when agencies don't follow their own laws. Logging is their clear priority, since underbrush reduction projects are already exempt from environmental review. Without such crucial public input and legal recourse, the Forest Service can greenwash old destructive timber sales as projects for forest health and fire reduction.
Timber companies are applying tremendous pressure to get this done. Mark Rey, President Bush's undersecretary of agriculture overseeing the Forest Service, is a former timber lobbyist. The Bush administration has recently announced a barrage of rule changes that would effectively gut the laws protecting our national forests. At least eight of the draft regulations are identical to items on a wish list presented in testimony by the American Forest and Paper Association, Mark Rey's former employer. The proposed rules would limit environmental review, restrict public participation, and remove the requirement that the Forest Service maintain viable populations of native wildlife.
These policy changes are likely to impact California directly and very soon. The Forest Service has chosen sites in the Mendocino and Eldorado National Forests as test sites for the proposed policies. The Sierra Club fears that the Bush administration will use these regulations to gut the Sierra Nevada Framework. Meanwhile, the Forest Service openly supports plans to allow the logging of sequoias and clearcutting in the new Giant Sequoia National Monument. It has also launched an initiative to cut 176,000 acres of the Sierra Nevada to "research" the effects of logging on the spotted owl.
Back in Washington, Rep. McInnis and Sen. Craig are poised to aggressively reintroduce their lawless logging bills. In the previous Congress they were trying to lure key Democrats into joining them. Our elected representatives must actively oppose these bad bills and stop the Bush-led assaults on our forests.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
1. Hear Sierra Club national board member Chad Hanson's talk on Friday, February 28 at 7 p.m. at the Peninsula Conservation Center (PCC), 3921 E. Bayshore Road, Palo Alto. As the board liaison to the National Forest Campaign, Chad understands the situation and how the Club is responding. Chad is also the executive director of the John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute, which works to stop logging and other forms of commercial exploitation of our public lands through research, litigation, and advocacy. (Refreshments provided.)
2. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper opposing proposed forest rules changes and the new Healthy Forest Initiative. State the following points:
• Our national forests don't need commercial logging.
• The best available science tells us that the solution to the fire issue is underbrush reduction near homes, not more timber sales.
• We need to oppose any measure that would in any way erode environmental protection, public participation, or recourse to the courts.
Send San Francisco Chronicle letters to letters@SFCHRONICLE.COM or Letters to the Editor, San Francisco Chronicle, 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94013.
Send San Jose Mercury News letters to letters@SJMERCURY.COM or Letters to the Editor, San Jose Mercury News, 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190 or fax 408/ 288-8060.
Be sure to include your complete address and phone number. They won't be published.
3. Attend our chapter Forest Protection Committee meeting on February 10 or March 10 at the PCC. For questions about our committee, contact Karen Maki at 650/366-0577, karenmaki@EARTHLINK.NET.
The next session of Congress will include the
reintroduction of the Sierra Club-backed National Forest Protection and
Restoration Act, the only legislation to propose full protection from
commercial logging while also providing genuine fire-risk reduction and
taxpayer savings. Most Congresspersons representing the Loma Prieta
chapter co-sponsored this bill in the last session, including
Representatives Honda, Lofgren, and Lantos.