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AMERICAN FOR THE ANCIENT FORESTS & THE WESTERN ANCIENT FOREST
CAMPAIGN

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                       Contact: Mike Martin
September 16, 1992                               202-296-2777

345 Scientists Petition Congress to Protect the Northwestern
Ancient Forests

     Washington, D.C. - A group of 345 scientists today delivered
an "Open Letter to Congress" urging lawmakers to mandate
ecologically-based forest management practices in the Pacific
Northwest.  The letter was circulated because the group fears that
political considerations will supersede scientific recommendations
in the policy making process.

     "For the past several years it appeared that Congress was on
the verge of enacting an ecologically-based forest management
policy," said Dr. Elliot A. Norse, author of Ancient Forests of
the Pacific Northwest.  "Now many of my colleagues and I fear that
the politicians are not willing to look objectively at the facts
or want to put off making decisions.  As researchers, analysts,
and educators, many of us have put a lot of professional
dedication into finding a practical and responsible solution and
there is frustration in seeing our best recommendations fall on
deaf ears."  Norse added, "The ancient forests have been logged to
bits; we have to do the right thing and we have to do it now."

     In the "Open Letter to Congress" delivered today, the
scientists cited recent NASA space photographs which reveal "an
alarming rate of habitat loss and fragmentation" in the region's
forests.  Referring to the threat posed by logging to the
biological diversity harbored in the Northwest's ancient forests -
"over 200 species of vertebrates and an uncounted number of
plants, insects, arthropods, fungi, bacteria and other life" - the
scientists wrote of "..an ecosystem whose richness and complexity
we are just beginning to understand."  The scientists also
cautioned that "continued fragmentation of the ecosystem will only
hasten a demise that may well prove irreversible."

     The Open Letter was distributed at a time when scientists and
environmentalists are concerned that in a backroom compromise, the
House of Representatives may abandon an agreement to develop
legislation within a scientific framework. The Open Letter was
circulated at several scientific society meetings this summer and
was signed by foresters, biologists, ecologists, botanists,
zoologists, chemists, geologists and other professional
researchers and educators.  It was distributed along with other
documents calling for strong congressional action by the Society
of Conservation Biology, the Ecological Society of America, and
the American Institute of Biological Sciences.  Together, these
professional scientific organizations represent nearly 100,000
American Scientists.

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