5/4/07

SENATORS TO INTRODUCE ROADLESS AREA CONSERVATION ACT

Congress soon will get another chance to vote on a bill that would permanently protect the nation's roadless federal forests.

Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and John Warner (R-VA) will reintroduce the National Forest Roadless Area Conservation Act in the Senate. They are circulating a "Dear Colleague" letter to garner co-sponsors for the bill.

You can read their letter here:

http://www.forestsforever.org/Senroadlessletter.pdf

A version of the bill will be introduced simultaneously in the House of Representatives by Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA).

The Roadless Area Conservation Act was first introduced in 2003 in the Senate by Cantwell and the the House by Inslee.

The Bush administration repealed the original, protective roadless rule on May 2005 and replaced it with a complicated, state-by-state petition process that left the final decision on all roadless areas up to the secretary of agriculture.

In September 2006 a district court judge in San Francisco threw out the Bush repeal and reinstated the original rule. But the fight to protect the roadless forests of the nation is not yet over. The Bush administration has appealed the judge's decision, and the state of Wyoming has reinstituted its lawsuit against the 2001 rule, which had resulted in a nationwide suspension of the rule in 2005.

And even though the Bush administration's petition process has been struck down by the courts, the department of agriculture is still accepting petitions from state governors who want to change the way roadless areas in their states are managed.

The original Roadless Area Conservation Rule was written during the Clinton administration and went into effect in January 2001. It was the most popular environmental rule ever written, with over 1.6 million public comments on the original rule, 96 percent of them favorable. The rule, currently in force again, protects more than 50 million roadless acres of national forest from roadbuilding, logging, drilling, mining, and other development.

Forests Forever has campaigned for a strong roadless rule in one fight or another since before the Clinton rule went into effect.

There are many good reasons to preserve the roadless areas in our national forests. Roadless lands preserve essential watersheds and help ensure an abundant supply of clean drinking water. By keeping large areas of forest undisturbed, we can provide refuges for endangered wildlife and avoid fragmenting habitat. Undisturbed lands are an effective barrier to invasive species– a growing problem nationwide. And roadless areas provide a wide array of recreational opportunities.

A law enacted by Congress (rather than a rule promulgated by a federal agency) would ensure that roadless protections are not subject to the whims of a hostile executive branch. It would provide needed and long-lasting protection for the last unroaded forests in the country.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

The deadline fror signing up co-sponsors for the Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2007 is

TUESDAY MAY 8, 2007.

Californians will be glad to learn that both of our senators, Sen. Barbara Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, have agreed to co-sponsor the bill. But call them anyway, thanking them for their support and letting them know how much the nation's roadless forests mean to you.

The House version of the bill is still open as well, so contact your representatives and encourage them to sign on as co-sponsors.

The Senate and House bills are identical to the previous year's bill, with the addition of all newly inventoried roadless areas in the Senate version.

Contact Sen. Barbara Boxer at: (202) 224-3553

Contact Sen. Dianne Feinstein at: (202) 224-3841

Find your representative at:

http://www.house.gov/MemStateSearch.html

Read Inslee's National Forest Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2005 here:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.3563:

CO-SPONSORS OF SEN. CANTWELL'S S.2364:

*Sen. Akaka, Daniel K. (HI)
*Sen. Bingaman, Jeff (NM)
Sen. Boxer, Barbara (CA)
Sen. Clinton, Hillary Rodham (NY)
Sen. Dodd, Christopher J. (CT)
*Sen. Feinstein, Dianne (CA)
Sen. Harkin, Tom (IA)
Sen. Kerry, John F. (MA)
Sen. Lautenberg, Frank R. (NJ)
Sen. Lieberman, Joseph I. (CT)
Sen. Menendez, Robert (NJ)
*Sen. Wyden, Ron (OR)