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From: mcready@northernnet.com
Newsgroups: alt.forestry,bionet.agroforestry
Subject: Re: Request by David Brower
Date: Thu, 09 Jul 1998 06:23:13 GMT
Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion
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In article <199806232119.OAA25415@jeffnet.org>,
  "George B. Hutchinson" <gbhutch@jeffnet.org> wrote:
>
> PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY  (And please excuse duplications.  --George)
> >
> >Dear Friend of the Forests,
> >
> >David Brower has asked me to send this letter out widely.
> >Please help get Brower's message out to any and all leaders,
> >directors, and staff of U.S. local, regional, and national
> >conservation organizations that you may know.
> >
> >Thanks in advance for your help,
> >
> >Ren� Voss
> >Vice-Chair,
> >National Sierra Club's Forest Campaign
> >
> >****************************************
> >
> >DAVID R. BROWER
> >SIERRA CLUB
> >85 Second Street
> >Second Floor
> >San Francisco, CA  94105-3441
> >
> >May 28, 1998
> >
> >Dear friends,
> >
> >What if we no longer had to worry about the timber industry
> >cutting down our national forests? What if they were protected
> >as John Muir envisioned over a century ago? We now have the
> >opportunity to make Muir�s dream a reality.
> >
> >I am writing to ask for your organization's endorsement of
> >HR 2789, the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act
> >("NFPRA", a.k.a. the "McKinney/Leach bill"), which was
> >introduced last October by Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and
> >Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA, Chair of the House Banking and
> >Financial Services Committee). This historic bipartisan
> >legislation, with a growing list of co-sponsors, will end
> >the timber sales program on national forests, BLM lands, and
> >national wildlife refuges, and will redirect current logging
> >subsidies into worker retraining, payments to counties,
> >ecological restoration work (with a hiring preference for
> >dislocated timber workers), grants for tree-free alternatives
> >for paper and construction materials, and deficit reduction.
> >Taxpayers will save over $300 million annually.
> >

Blah, blah, blah snipped

> >
> >Sincerely,
> >
> >/s/ David R. Brower
> >David R. Brower
> >Director, Sierra Club
> >Former Sierra Club Executive Director (1952-1969)
> >Chairman, Earth Island Institute
> >
> >attachments
> >
> >
> >Attachment 1:
> >
> >THE NATIONAL FOREST PROTECTION AND
> >RESTORATION ACT (H.R. 2789)
> >
> >Introduced on 10/31/97
> >BY REP. CYNTHIA MCKINNEY (D-GA)
> >AND REP. JIM LEACH (R-IA)
> >
> >Co-sponsors, to date, include:
> >Jim McDermott (D-WA), George Brown (D-CA), Julian Dixon (D-CA),
> >Bob Filner (D-CA), Luis Gutierrez, (D-IL), John Lewis (D-GA),
> >Pete Stark (D-CA), Henry Waxman (D-CA), Michael Forbes (R-NY),
> >Sydney Yates (D-IL), Harold Ford (D-TN), Robert Andrews (D-NJ),
> >Bob Franks (R-NJ), Barney Frank (D-MA), Gary Ackerman (D-NY),
> >Lynn Rivers (D-MI), David Bonier (D-MI), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH),
> >Matthew Martinez (D-CA), Tom Lantos (D-CA), Joe Kennedy (D-MA),
> >Bill Luther (D-MN), Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), William Clay (D-MO),
> >Bobby Rush (D-IL), Henry Gonzalez (D-TX), James McGovern (D-MA),
> >Ed Markey (D-MA)
> >
> >The National Forest Protection and Restoration Act (NFPRA):
> >
> >Preserves America�s national forest heritage, protecting and
> >restoring the ecological values of our federal public forests
> >by ending the federal government�s timber sale program on
> >National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges, and BLM Lands.

Result:  Lock up more land for Wilderness designation and eliminate public use
of public land.  No management, no use, no people allowed . . . unless you
belong to one of the so-called environmental groups!

> >
> >Immediately protects all roadless areas by canceling existing
> >timber sales in those areas.

Roadless like the Boundary Waters Wilderness of northern Minnesota?  An area
which is riddled with roads, but if you don't see them they don't exist?

> >
> >Immediately prohibits all new timber sales, cancels Salvage
> >Rider sales, and phases out all existing timber sales within
> >2 years.

Result:  Loss of good paying jobs, inflation of timber prices, and importing
of timber from other non-managed timber countries.  And, more of our people
on welfare, rather than providing for themselves.  Just what the so-called
environmental community wants - the people controlled by the government!

> >
> >Saves taxpayers over $300 million annually.

Only because the so-called environmentalists won't be suing every timber sale
in this country anymore!  THAT'S where much of our taxpayers dollars goes to.
Court costs which are included in the 'below cost timber sales' bottom line!

> >
> >Redirects logging subsidies to provide funds for worker
> >retraining; and gives preference to displaced timber workers
> >for jobs in the woods doing ecological restoration.
> >

Result:  Retrain loggers for minimum wage jobs!

> >Begins a scientifically-based ecological restoration program
> >for federal public forests.

Scientifially-based ecological restoration program based on whose standards?

> >
> >Redirects logging subsidies, providing funding to replace 25%
> >revenue sharing payments to States for Counties and local
> >governments.

Yippy!!!  Give the States 25 cents on the dollar which will be reduced even
more once it ever gets to the county and local level of governments because
of red tape!

> >
> >Redirects logging subsidies to provide funding for
> >environmentally sensitive non-wood alternative paper and
> >construction materials.
> >

Result:  Sky-rocketing building costs and prices of paper products.

> >
> >Attachment 2:
> >
> >ENDING TIMBER SALES ON NATIONAL FORESTS:  THE FACTS
> >
> >-- REPORT SUMMARY --
> >
> >This report analyzes the issues surrounding an end to the
> >timber sales program on national forests.  Among the findings
> >are the following:
> >
> >The national forest timber sales program operated at a net
> >loss to taxpayers of at least $791 million in fiscal year 1996,
> >and returned $0 (no receipts) to taxpayers.
> >

That's because of all the lawsuits brought on by so-called environmental
groups.

> >If we ended the timber sales program on national forests and
> >redirected the logging subsidy, we could provide over $25,000 for
> >each public lands timber worker for retraining or ecological
> >restoration work--and still have over $200 million left over to
> >reduce the federal deficit in the first year alone.
> >

If we added in all the recreational benefits as a result of logging there
would be no net loss to taxpayers on timber sales.  After logging, areas
become habitat for deer, moose, fox, rabbitts - resulting in more hunting
licenses being sold.  Where the deer are there is an increas of wolves. 
Logging roads become snowmobile and ATV trains - add in all the revenues from
their licensing and from the gas tax.  Logging roads also become hiking,
biking and ski trails bringing more tourists to the areas.  Burned over areas
become berry picking areas.

> >We don't need to log national forests for our timber supply,
> >given the fact that the timber cut annually from national
> >forests nationwide now comprises only 3.9% of this nation's
> >total annual wood consumption, and less than 5% of the sawtimber
> >used for construction.

That's because the so-called environmentalists have tied the hands of the
Forest Service in managing our forests.

> >
> >The Forest Service's own nationwide poll found that most
> >Americans oppose commodity production, including timber sales,
> >on national forests.

Whoa!  Americans oppose commodity production?!  A lot of people own land which
is within national forests.  They have farms and crops and animals.

> >
> >Logging on national forests INCREASES the risk of forest fires
> >more than any other human activity.
> >

How's that?  No management of our national forests, like all of our
designated wildernesses, results in more devastating fires with all the dead,
diseased trees, both standing and fallen.  All the underbrush helps those
fires to spread.  Just look what an unattended camp fire did on the
non-motorized Romance Lake in the Boundary Waters a couple of years ago.  The
fire burned over 30,000 acres of wilderness trees, spreading into Canada.

> >The above findings were reviewed and verified by the Congressional
> >Research Service (CRS).  In a report dated August 22, 1997, CRS
> >concluded that, �...as the commentary demonstrates in figure 4,
> >essentially NO timber sales receipts were deposited in the General
> >Treasury in FY1996 to offset timber program expenditures.  Thus,
> >one can conclude that $791 million is a �reasonable estimate� of
> >the cost of the Forest Service's FY1996 timber program to
> >taxpayers.� (emphasis in original)
> >

All those lawsuits and court costs sure do push up the net loss on timber
sales!

> >In summary, the national forest timber sales program, in addition
> >to being horribly destructive ecologically, loses hundreds of
> >millions of taxpayer dollars each year, increases forest fires,
> >is unnecessary for our timber supply, and should be ended.
> >

Why not let actual foresters do their jobs of managing our forests.  They are
a renewable resource and our foresters and loggers have learned alot in the
last 100 years.  Work with them, not against them.  The greatest threat to
our forests is the hype and emotion of so-called environmentalists!


SNIP

Enough already!

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