🚀 go-pugleaf

NEW APPROPRIATIONS RIDERS RUMORED
 
     California Reps. Wally Herger (R-CA), and John Doolittle (R-
CA) may be sponsoring a rider to extend the logging rider and to
undercut the scientific regional assessment being conducted in the
Sierra Nevada and Rep. Nethercutt (R-WA) may have similar plans
for the Columbia Basin Initiative.
 
     We must be vigilant against any new attacks on our
environmental laws.  Staff for Appropriations Chairman Robert
Livingston (R-LA) and Interior Appropriations Chairman Ralph
Regula (R-OH) have both indicated their concerns about riders and
expressed a hope that none would be attached to the Interior
Appropriations bill this year.  Markup of the 1997 Interior
Appropriations is expected to begin the first week of June, with
action by the full Appropriations the second week and floor
consideration the third.  The House has set a goal of completing
action on all Appropriations bills by the July 4 recess.
 
     Please contact both Chairman, and urge them to oppose all
anti-environmental riders in the Interior Appropriations bill.  
 
Rep. Robert Livingston (R-LA)      Rep. Ralph Regula (R-OH)
House Appropriation Committee      House Interior
Subcommittee 
Phone 225-2771                     Phone 225-3081, Fax 225-9069
H-218 Capitol                 B-308 Rayburn  
Washington, D.C. 20515             Washington, D.C. 20515
 
 
ATTACKS CONTINUE ON REGIONAL SCIENTIFIC ASSESSMENTS
 
     Just one week after Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-
GA) outlined the Republican's principles for environmental
protection, that included sound science, House Republicans are
attacking the scientific ecoregion assessments being carried out in
the Sierra Nevada and the Columbia Basin.  The House Resources
Committee held an oversight hearing May 21 on the regional
scientific assessments.  Two weeks ago, House Republicans Rep.
Helen Chenoweth (R-ID) and Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) attacked
the Columbia Basin Scientific Assessment before the Interior
Appropriations Subcommittee, claiming it was a threat to private
property.  Chief Jack Ward Thomas of the Forest Service repeatedly
assured the Committee that no decisions based on the assessment
would apply to private lands.
 
     The lawmakers appear to be afraid of revealing the biological
reality of decades of abuse caused by too much logging,
roadbuilding, grazing and mining in the Columbia Basin and the
Sierra Nevada.  These assessments study entire ecosystems to learn
their condition and how they operate.  This information allows land
managers such as the Forest Service and Bureau of Land
Management to do better, more cost-effective planning and helps to
ensure that management activities on those lands are appropriate. 
Chief Thomas estimated that revising all of the management plans
in the Columbia Basin to bring them into compliance with law
would cost an estimated $200 million.  Using information from the
scientific assessment will allow all of the management plans to be
updated simultaneously at a cost of only $30 million.  The scientific
assessments also provide information on past impacts and identify
areas in need of restoration.  
 
 
REP. NETHERCUTT SETS THE STAGE FOR A NEW RIDER
 
     The House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee held a
hearing May 7 at the request of Rep. George Nethercutt to raise his
concerns with the Columbia Basin EIS and Scientific Assessment to
perhaps prepare the committee for a new rider such as Section 314. 
Hastings and Chenoweth complained, but didn't offer any serious
arguments against them.  Several industry advocates testified in
support of Rep. Nethercutt's Section 314 rider, and wanted to
permit industry to have a role in all decisions relating to the EIS's
(such as picking the preferred alternative).  Commissioner John
Howard of Union County Oregon, and representing all of the
counties within the Columbia Basin affected by the process surprised
Nethercutt when he testified that the counties supported the process
and opposed his Section 314 rider.  Howard argued that the
assessment and EIS process offered the counties the greatest degree
of certainty because at the end of the process, there would be
scientifically sound management plans in place that could withstand
legal challenges and offer the best opportunity for sustainable
development.  
 
     Paul Brouha of the American Fisheries Society and the
Wildlife Society testified that forest and aquatic systems in the
Columbia basin are imperiled by logging old growth, road
construction, grazing, mining and fire suppression.  Present amounts
of old growth on the eastside are far below historic levels; only 8%
(on the Wallowa-Whitman NF) to 32% (on the Deschutes NF) is
protected administratively, but 70 to 95% of the patches that remain
cover less than 100 acres -- too small to provide for the needs of
many old growth associated species.  Only 3-5% of the original
ponderosa pine climax old-growth remains in the Deschutes, and 2-
8% on the Fremont.  As a result, aquatic systems have been
compromised and large numbers of fishes and amphibians now face
extinction in watersheds throughout the eastside.  At least 106 major
populations of migratory salmon and steelhead trout have been
extirpated, many from east of the Cascades, and 24 of 25 at-risk
species in Oregon occur in eastside waters.
 
 
COLUMBIA BASIN EIS PROCESS BACK ON TRACK
 
     Chief Jack Ward Thomas and Michael Dombeck Director of
the BLM testified that the Columbia Basin Project was on track to
complete the scientific assessment and release the Draft EIS in
August.  A ninety day public comment period will ensue.  The final
EIS and Record of Decision are expected in May of 1997.  Then
beginning in June, the process will begin to amend the 74
management plans affected by the process.  Industry representatives
complained that under every alternative, timber harvest was
expected to drop by as much as 50%, but Steve Mealey, project
director stated that no final decisions have been made about the
land designations in any of the alternatives.
 
 
SIERRA NEVADA ECOSYSTEM PROJECT UNDER FIRE
 
     In a May 21 hearing, the House Resources Committee
reviewed the Sierra Nevada, Columbia Basin and Southern
Appalachian ecosystem projects.  Reps. Wally Herger (R-CA) and
John Doolittle (R-CA) stated that they do not want the
Administration to take any action on the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem
Project (SNEP) until they have had an opportunity to review it. 
They also want the California Spotted Owl EIS to be released before
SNEP, saying they want all information on the table for their review
(or a possible rider to undo the EIS).  Conservationists have been
calling for a delay in the Cal Owl EIS to allow for the results of the
SNEP study to be incorporated.  The agency stated that the SNEP
report would be sent to Congress and the Administration on June 7. 
It is now assumed that despite Rep. Herger's demand, the Cal Owl
EIS will be delayed several weeks to see if its conclusions are
consistent with SNEP.