🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello folks,

The following bulletin was posted by the Western Ancient
Forest Campaign earlier today.  Turns out that the Senate
seems to think that mowing down our ancient forest is a
really cool thing to do.

You have a choice to make.  

1.  Sit back on your lazy @$$ and say "Oh my, how terrible."

or

2.  DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.......NOW!!

I bet that most of you are up for option two.   :)

Read the following attachment and then call, fax
and/or e-mail the President with your thoughts.

Oh, and you might be interested to know that the
Forest (dis)Service is planning TWO HUNDRED AND
FORTY EIGHT "salvage" sales for California as
we speak.

GET MOVING!  PHONE, FAX, AND WRITE NOW.  Or,
we can just change the name of California to
"Stumpsville."  You make the call...
********************************************************
Subject:  Murray Amendment Defeated/White House Needs to Hear From You 
   Date:  Thu, 14 Mar 1996 13:24:39 -0800 (PST) 
   From:  Western Ancient Forest Campaign <wafcdc@igc.apc.org>
     To:  Recipients of conference <mlist.wafcdc@conf.igc.apc.org>


TO:        All Forest Activists
FROM:     Steve Holmer and Jim Jontz
DATE:     March 14, 1996
 
SUBJECT:  Sen. Murray's Amendment Defeated 54-42
          THE WHITE HOUSE IS NOW THE BALL GAME
 
     The Senate voted today 54-42 against the amendment offered
by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) to repeal the logging rider and
replace it with an expedited timber salvage program.  Several
Members who had voted for Sen. Murray's amendment to last
year's rescissions bill switched their vote in favor of the rider
including Sens. Robert Byrd (D-WV), Bennett Johnston (D-LA), John
Breaux (D-LA), Howell Heflin (D-AL), William Roth (R-DE) and
William Cohen (R-ME).  According to hill staff, Sen. Mark Hatfield
(R-OR) was able to exert considerable influence as Chairman of the
Senate Appropriations Committee to cause these votes to switch.
 
     The key to remember at this point is that the President has
promised that he will deal with the "rider" (he has now said he
supports its complete repeal) and the White House will have
enormous influence on the final version of the Omnibus
Appropriations bill -- if they choose to use it.  A short term
spending bill will be passed Friday to fund the government for
another week, possibly two.  During this time period, negotiations
will be going on between the Administration and the Congress over
what is in the Omnibus measure.
 
     The President has the means to set the "bar" about anywhere
he wants it, because he can make clear to the Congress what he
will sign and what he will not sign. The Republicans in Congress
know that if the government shuts down, they will be blamed.  The
key is to raise the visibility of the "rider" and make its repeal a
"deal breaker" for the White House.  The President needs to say to
the Congress, "I am not signing this bill without complete repeal of
the rider," and then make it stick.
 
     This last week has been a difficult period for our community.
We did not want to find ourselves on opposite sides of the Murray
amendment.  But now we are in a new phase.  There is no reason
that everyone can't be delivering the same message to the White
House: insisting on complete repeal of the rider in the Omnibus
Appropriations bill is what we expect the President to do to keep
his promise.  We are putting everything we have into
communicating this message to the White House so we urge you to
FAX FOR THE FORESTS and take every other possible step to keep
the heat on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
 
     The vote means that the rider "fix" offered by Sen. Hatfield
will move forward as part of the Omnibus Appropriations bill.
The fix extends the life of the Section 318 sales to ensure the
industry will be able to log them all.  The Administration is also
offered greater flexibility to find replacement volume and to buyback
sales within 45 days of the bill's passage.  All replacements and
buybacks under this provision must be voluntarily agreed to by the
timber sale contract holder.  Numerous other anti-environmental
riders have been included in both the House and Senate versions of
the bill that should prompt a Presidential veto.
 
     The Washington Post has been reporting this week that the
Administration may be looking for a compromise on the
Appropriations bill to restore funding for key educational and
environmental programs.  This makes it even more critical that the
President hear loud and clear that we want all of the anti-
environmental riders stopped and the logging rider repealed as part
of any agreement with Congress.  Please call the White House at
202/456-1111 or 456-6797, email president@whitehouse.gov or fax
202/456-2883 and urge the President to insist on full repeal of the
logging rider and to hold firm against all new attacks on our
environment.
 
 
Senate Debate Summary of Sen. Murray's Amendment
     Sen. Murray touted her amendment as a "Common sense,
responsible policy, to fix a mistake and to allow lawful expeditious
salvage.  The rider suspended environmental safeguards, cut the
public out and mandated scientifically unsound sales.  It went too
far."  In order to garner additional support during the debate Sen.
Murray dropped the provision allowing for sales to be suspended
once they are appealed, but this appears to have failed to sway the
conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans whose votes that
she needed.
 
     During the debate, Sen. Murray revealed that President
Clinton has endorsed her bill and called for the repeal of the rider
as soon as possible in a letter.  As the debate progressed Murray
repeatedly referred to common ground and reasonable compromise
and her strong support for expediting salvage.  "Timber salvage is
good if it is done wisely and in a scientifically sound manner.  We
need to stop the pendulum from swinging to where there is no
cutting to where there is no accountability.  Others who spoke in
favor of the bill include Sens. Bradley (D-NJ), Boxer (D-CA), Baucus
(D-MT), Leahy (D-VT) and Wyden (D-OR) in his first ever Senate
floor speech.
 
     Sen. Wyden strongly endorsed salvage logging as a response
the "forest health crisis" and stated that Sen. Craig's forest health
bill S.391 was a good starting point for the forest health debate.
Wyden noted Gov. Kitzhaber's report detailing tree mortality
problems in the Blue Mountains as a reason to support expedited
salvage logging and said that management is needed to solve the
problem.  On the other hand, he called the rider "A Trojan horse
that allows for the lawless logging of healthy old growth trees."
This was almost immediately followed with an attack on the
Northwest Forest Plan and logging levels under the Plan which
Wyden referred to as "Meager promises, not kept."
 
     Wyden then offered some followup steps he would support,
including expediting the release of all the Section 318 sales that are
not environmentally sensitive, saying not all the sales should be
stopped.  He also objected to holding up "bona fide salvage sales"
due to appeals.  He then referred to Murray's forest health
provision as weak, and that more on roadless areas needs to be
included, but it was unclear what he meant with this statement.
 
     Sens. Hatfield, Gorton (R-WA), Craig (R-IL), Burns (R-MT)
and Kempthorn (R-ID) all spoke in favor of the bill.  Sen. Hatfield
said, "seeing the photos (of Ancient Forest trees fallen) chill my
blood.  But it would also chill my blood to walk into a
slaughterhouse to see how sausages are made.  But I still like
sausages."  Hatfield defended his fix language and Sen. Gorton
stated that the Administration is only legally obligated to log the 650
mmbf of Section 318 sales, and was not required to do any salvage
or Option 9 sales that do not comply with environmental laws.
 
     This statement is true, although the President did agree to
meet volume targets for both Option 9 and salvage sales when he
signed the bill.  These agreed to targets and the direct pressure
from Members of Congress threatening budget cuts, is forcing the
agencies to violate the law and take shortcuts in preparing sales.
Without accountability, we are starting to see the "timber first"
mentality return to many forests, so it is even more important that
we redouble pressure on the White House to ensure that the land
management agencies do not abuse their discretion and that no
Option 9 or salvage sales go forward that violate environmental laws
or land management plans.
 
The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
FAX: 202-456-2883
PHONE: 202-456-1414
Public Comment Line: 202-456-1111
Email: president@whitehouse.gov
 
Kathleen McGinty
Director
Council on Environmental Quality
Room 360, OEOB
Washington, D.C. 20501
PHONE: 202-456-6224
FAX: 202-456-2710
 
The Honorable Secretary
Dan Glickman
U.S. Department of Agriculture
14th St. and Independence Ave. SW
Washington, D.C. 20250
PHONE: 202-720-3631
FAX: 202-720-2166 or 729-5437
 
The Honorable Secretary
Bruce Babbitt
U.S. Department of Interior
1849 C St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20240
PHONE: 202-208-7351
FAX: 202-208-6956