🚀 go-pugleaf

The "Emergency Salvage Timber Program," adopted by Congress on
July 26th, 1995, has a birthday coming up.  It purports to protect forests
from those pesky natural conditions, like fire, wind, and insects.  It
calls for an immediate "get the cut out before it burns or gets bitten by
an ant."  Fires (not fire suppression) are a necessary part of the forest
ecosystem, insects live in trees, and downed logs retain the moisture
necessary to nurture new growth in the forest.  Old growth forests are the
ecosystems the most UNSUSCEPTIBLE to fires.  After all, they are at least a
hundred years old and some as old as a few thousand years.  If you listen
to the Forestry industry hype, you'd believe that old growth is a fire
hazard and is sick by virtue of it's age.  In fact, the forestry industry
is lying through their teeth with a straight face.  A massive TV, radio,
and print campaign has been carefully structured to placate the public's
concern about forest protection.  The timber corporations have come up with
a "forestry health" crisis, and have succeeded in opening virtually any
forest land previously protected (endangered species habitat, wildlife
corridors, some roadless areas, etc..) to logging without laws.  They did
this by capitalizing on recent fires, claiming they are killing the forests
along with bugs.  The only emergency here is fire suppression, which allows
dried brush to grow uncontrolled, providing fuel for fires to burn faster
and hotter than they would if natural fire cycles were allowed.  But the
timber industry has a solution to this "crisis," more suppression.  They
argue that dead trees and decaying wood cause our forests to go up in
flames, and that we should replace Smokey the Bear with a chainsaw.  They
argue that dense stands of trees provide fuel for fires, so thinning is
needed.  They claim old�growth forests are unhealthy and use up oxygen
instead of providing it.

The bare bones truth is that their method of "management" will only cause
more of our forests to go up in flames.  By "selectively" thinning our
forests, they are allowing more sunlight onto the forest floor, creating a
fire hazard by speeding the growth of underbrush fuel.  To make matters
worse, by clearcutting (they claim this enhances spotted owl habitat) and
reseeding, they are growing even�aged forests (tree farms) that would be
entirely decimated by a fire.  When a fire occurs, underbrush, as well as
trees with a low canopy are burned.  It is the large trees that survive,
the very trees targeted for timber sales.    The real issue here is the fact
that old growth trees contain massive board feet.  They also contain
endangered species, who are protected by law.  Well, so we thought.

Under the rescissions bill, H.R. 1944, an unrelated "rider" was quietly
slipped in.  The "rider from hell" was packaged and pushed on us by none
other than the likes of League of Conservation Voter "zeroes" like
Representatives Don Young, Mark Hatfield, Slade Gorton, Larry Craig, Frank
Murkowski, and Charles Taylor to name a few.  These men all have extremely
strong ties to the wise-use movement and large timber firms.  This "leach"
rider happens to suspend environmental protection laws and covertly blocks
citizen's rights to challenge illegal timber sales.  The "Emergency Salvage
Timber Program" mandates public forests to be cut "to the maximum extent
feasible"..."Notwithstanding any other provision of law."  It specifically
exempts the Competition in Contracting Act, The Federal Procurement Policy
Act, The Forest and Rangeland Policy Management Act, The National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), The Endangered Species Act (ESA), The
National Forest Management Act, and the Multiple Sustained�yield Act. It
defines "salvage" as the removal of trees that are diseased or insect
infected, dead, damaged, downed, burned, or "immediately susceptible" to
being burned or eaten by bugs.  It also includes "associated trees" and
"trees lacking the characteristics of a healthy and viable ecosystem." That
about covers any forest on the chopping block.

Any court ruling that has held off sales are now NULL AND VOID under this
law.  Public input is not required under the law, and citizens may not
administratively appeal the decisions of agency officials.
While the law states "Citizens' rights to court action are not
prohibited," the law assures citizens' rights to recourse is made
impossible.  A lawsuit must be filed in the local federal district court
within 15 days of the advertisement of the sale.  So the time frame for
such actions is a prohibition in itself.  If a case is filed, the sale is
to be held up for 45 days, after which no injunction or restraining order
against the logging can be granted in the interim of the litigation.  Note
that all important environmental laws have been suspended in the case of
the salvage sales, so grounds for litigation are taken away as well.

To add insult to injury, Idaho's Senator Larry Craig has introduced  S. 391,
which is designed to rid us of any stands of old growth in the National
Forests that the Salvage Rider fails to cover.  If salvage sale money does
not cover timber industry road�building subsidies, The Forest Service can
then substitute funds appropriated for wildlife habitat, watershed
restoration, recreation, etc..

In honor of the 1st birthday of this wonderful "forest health" law, I urge
all to write, call, or e�mail President Clinton (president@whitehouse.gov),
your Federal representatives, and your local newspaper to let them know how
you feel.  I urge you also to call local radio talk shows on the
anniversary of the death of the public process, forest protection, and the
perpetuation of corporate welfare and big bucks payoffs.

Forest health my butt.

Kelly.cowan@ebbs.cts.com

P.S. Information obtained or plagerized from Sierra and the earth First!
Journal. Journal.  Hope y'all don't mind.  But hell, the salvage Rider is so
broad, you may not even be able to sue me!!