🚀 go-pugleaf

-------------- Enclosure number 1 ----------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                CONTACT:  Jim Jontz 
September 28, 1996                 202/789-2844 ext. 291



FAILURE TO REPEAL RIDER SHOWS PALE GREEN


     Failure of the White House and the Congress to repeal the
Timber Clearcut Rider in the Omnibus Appropriations bill
undercuts the pro-environment claims of the President and
lawmakers, says the Western Ancient Forest Campaign.

     WAFC had sought repeal of what has been called "the
worst public lands legislation ever" in the bill the Congress is
passing this weekend to fund the Forest Service and other
government agencies after October 1.

     "The White House tried, but not very hard.  The
Congressional leadership came down solidly for business as usual.
Now everyone can go out and campaign for protecting the
environment while the worst environmental law of the 104th
Congress remains in full force," said Connie Stewart, WAFC
President.

     The agreement by the White House to a funding bill for
the Forest Service keeping the Rider in effect came just hours
after PBS broadcast of a David Frost interview with Vice
President Al Gore in which Gore said the Logging Rider was the
"biggest mistake" of the four years of the Clinton Administration.

     "I think the biggest mistake that we have made involved
an issue known in the United States as the 'salvage rider,'" Gore
said in the PBS interview, admitting that logging under the Rider
is damaging National Forest ecosystems.

     However, Gore sought in the interview to shift blame to a
federal judge and discount the disastrous impacts of the Rider
that are yet to be felt.  "Luckily, that law will run out on
December 31 and we have a better chance of containing the
damage and undoing the worst of it," Gore said.

     WAFC has inventoried 163 environmentally objectionable
timber sales under the Rider that are anticipated to be offered for
sale between now and December 31. 

     "Rider sales are planned that will clearcut old growth
forests, pollute pristine waters, and threaten endangered fisheries
and wildlife," says WAFC Campaign Coordinator Steve Holmer. 
"These 163 sales have nothing to do with Judge Hogan's ruling. 
The Vice President talks about 'containing the damage and
undoing the worst of it' but he let our best chance to do this slip
away."
     Holmer said that WAFC will work with local conservation
leaders to press for cancellation of individual Rider sales, if the
104th Congress adjourns with out repealing the Rider.  "Virtually
every one of these sales can be ended by the Administration if
they choose," said Holmer.  

     A list of sales to be canceled under a directive from
Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman is expected to be released
soon, but WAFC says that many of the sales the environmentally
objectionable sale will not be on the Glickman list.  

     "The Glickman directive does not cover Option 9 sales, it
does not protect uninventoried roadless areas, and it does not
prevent logging of old growth forests," says Holmer.  "The
Clinton Administration needs to go much further than the
Glickman directive to halt bad rider sales.


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