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The Lunz Group, S.C. |
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Conservation |
One of the most popular conservation policies in American history was dealt
a crippling blow with the Bush administration's decision to abandon the landmark
Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The Bush administration has proposed a convoluted
process that will leave America's last wild forests open to destructive commercial
logging and road building. This controversial decision forces Governors to petition
the Department of Agriculture to protect their wild, roadless National Forests.
The public comment period officially began July 16th and continues through September
14, 2004.
Already, 440,000 miles of roads are carved into America's National Forests.
The wildly popular Roadless Rule helped protect our remaining wild forests and
the clean water, wildlife habitat and outstanding backcountry recreation opportunities
from more taxpayer-subsidized commercial logging. South Carolina has 8,000 acres
of roadless areas that include beautiful places like Rock Gorge in the Sumter
National Forest. The Roadless Rule was developed over three years of public
hearings and scientific analysis. To date more than 2 million Americans have
commented on the original rule, with 95 percent supporting the strongest wild
forests protections.
This policy change is the Bush administration's latest effort to reduce or eliminate
decades of National Forest protection and increase spending to benefit timber
companies.
Take Action: Submit a Comment Today!!
Mail comments to:
Content Analysis Team,
ATTN: Roadless State Petitions
USDA Forest Service
P.O. Box 221090
Salt Lake City, UT 84122
Fax to: (801) 517-1014
Email to: statepetitionroadless@fs.fed.us
Comments also may be submitted from: http://www.regulations.gov
Below is a sample comment and talking points:
Date
To Chief Dale Bosworth:
I am writing regarding the proposed changes to the Roadless Area Conservation
Rule. [Docket Number: 04-16191] I believe all of America's National Forests
should be protected from commercial logging, road construction and other damaging
activities. I would like complete protection for all roadless areas in all National
Forests. This includes protection from road building, including temporary roads,
all logging, mining and oil and gas development.
These wild forests should be protected in order to provide clean water, back
country recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, and other important values. I
urge you to abandon this misguided proposal and keep the Roadless Area Conservation
Rule intact in the Lower 48 states and Alaska's Chugach National Forest and
reinstate the rule in the Tongass National Forest. The Forest Service and the
Bush administration should do all they can to protect our last remaining roadless
areas.
Name
Address
Phone
Background:
The Bush administration's new policy will render the Roadless Area Conservation
Rule meaningless by requiring governors to petition the Forest Service to not
construct roads in or otherwise develop inventoried wild roadless forest areas.
The administration also indicated that it intends to permanently exempt the
national forests in Alaska from the roadless rule.
The "state petition" process that the Forest Service proposed would
require a two-step process for permanent protection of roadless areas on the
national forests. First, a state governor would have to prepare an administrative
petition "to adjust management direction" for roadless areas in their
state. The Forest Service could simply reject this petition out-of-hand. Second,
if the petition were agreed to, the Secretary of Agriculture would establish
a formal rulemaking process on a state-by-state basis to consider permanent
protection of the roadless areas in question. This administrative rulemaking
is time-consuming and the administration could simply decide not to grant protection.
The proposed rule would replace the Roadless Rule, leaving all 58.5 million
acres of inventoried roadless areas in the United States open to road building,
logging, and resource development. Until a state governor petitions for protection,
management of inventoried roadless areas would be based on the individual forest
management plans, which often require no special protections.
Roadless Area Conservation Rule Background
The Roadless Rule, designed to protect 58.5 million acres of roadless wild forests
in 39 states, was the result of the most extensive public comment process in
history, spanning three years and 600 public meetings. During the rulemaking,
the Clinton administration received a record-breaking one million public comments
in support of protecting wild forests. By January 2004, the Forest Service has
received more than 2.5 million comments from the American people, 95 percent
of which favor the strongest protections for these wild forests. From the day
President Bush entered the White House, his administration's intentions have
been clear: blocking the Roadless Rule was one of the new administration's first
decisions, followed shortly by refusal to defend the rule in court.
For more information visit www.sierraclub.org/forests or www.sierraclub.org/ecoregions/sahe
kate.smolski@sierraclub.org
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control will be hosting an Air Quality Update on August 18 from 1:30 to 3:45 p.m. in Peeples Auditorium at 2600 Bull St. in Columbia. This event will focus on EPA's recent designation of nonattainment areas for the 8-hour ozone standard, the ozone early action process, and various projects being implemented to improve South Carolina's air quality. In order to maximize access to the program while minimizing the amount of travel for the public, we will be broadcasting this update via SCETV's satellite system to additional sites around the state. You can register to attend the update in Columbia or at one of ten broadcast locations around the state at: www.scdhec.net/baq or contact Leslie Coolidge at (803) 898-3208 or coolidln@dhec.sc.gov Agenda PDF
Volunteer(s) needed to help distribute the Lunz Letter to various places around
town - restaurants, libraries, health food stores, outdoor equipment stores
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anywhere you think interested readers might pick them up! Takes only a small
amount of time each month. Please contact Laura Moses at lauramoses@yahoo.com
or 769-6975.