1/19/07

ACT TO SAVE AMERICA’S FORESTS MEETS THE NEW CONGRESS

Prominent on the to-do list forest activists are now drawing up for the new Congress is re-introduction of the Act to Save America’s Forests.

The Act to Save America’s Forests is a bill addressing problems across this country’s federal forest systems. It would ban clearcutting, promote sustainable forestry, stop logging and roadbuilding in the last wild, roadless, and ancient forests, and require the restoration of natural forest biodiversity.
It would also, importantly, transfer control of Giant Sequoia National Monument from the U.S. Forest Service to the National Park Service.

The bill was introduced in the Senate in 2005 by Sens. Jon Corzine (D-NJ) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and in the House in 2006 by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA).

Now, with the 110th Congress just getting under way, it has to be re-introduced again. But unlike the last Congress, this one is controlled by the Democrats, who are more likely to be friendly to forests. (Eight Republicans, however, were among the bill’s 153 co-sponsors in the last session.)

Eshoo plans to re-introduce the bill in the House; a new sponsor is being sought in the Senate. (Corzine was elected governor of New Jersey in November 2005.)

“I’m optimistic,” said Carl Ross of the eponymous organization Save America’s Forests, when asked about the bill’s chances in the new Congress.

California Democratic Rep. Pete Stark is circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter asking other representatives to co-sponsor the bill. The measure will need as many co-sponsors as possible. (The 2004 version had as many as 153.)

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Please write or call your member of Congress and urge him or her to become a co-sponsor of the Act to Save America’s Forests.

You can find your representative’s address on http://thomas.loc.gov/

Or contact your representative by calling the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and giving your zip code.

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Rep. _________________,

I urge you to become a co-sponsor of the Act to Save America’s Forests (H.R. 6237 [Eshoo] in the last Congress), a bill that will protect the sequoia groves in California’s Giant Sequoia National Monument from ecologically disastrous logging and mismanagement by the U.S. Forest Service. The act will transfer control of the Monument from the Forest Service to the National Park Service.

In addition to keeping timber harvesting out of the sequoia monument, the act would protect tens of millions of acres of designated core forest areas throughout all the national forests. It will prohibit clearcutting and other forms of destructive logging outside the core forest areas as well. The act will require native biodiversity in the national forests to be protected and restored.

I ask you to support the Act to Save America’s Forests and help pass it into law, so that the sequoias, and federal forests throughout this country, will be protected for future generations.

Sincerely,

[Your name]
[Your address]

And please send a copy to Forests Forever!

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For more information about the Act to Save America’s Forests, please visit our website
https://www.forestsforever.org/archives_resources/e-alerts/SaveAmForests.html

To see a gallery of full-color photos showing the destructive logging in Giant Sequoia National Monument, visit the Forests Forever website at:
https://www.forestsforever.org/archives_resources/chainsaws_cathedral.html

To see a video about the logging in the monument, narrated by Martin Litton, Forests Forever advisory council member and renowned sequoia advocate, visit the John Muir Project website at: http://www.johnmuirproject.org