Action Alert
Act Now!
Phone Calls, Letters Needed to Protect our National Forests
Republican Lawmakers Seek "Emergency" By-Pass of NEPA and NFMA in California
Oppose HR 2899!
Each, year, for millennia, California's forests have burned. The rich tapestry of biologically diverse habitats that characterize the region is largely dependent upon regular fire return. Many species of plants and animals are actually threatened from lack of fire. Forests have naturally regenerated after fire for hundreds of thousands of years. Today, fires that are ecologically uncharacteristic -- due to timing, size, and intensity -- are the result of human activities and the legacy of 150 years of logging, fire suppression, and development.
Republican lawmakers are now attempting to capitalize on the public's fears concerning forest fire. Under the misleading title, "California Catastrophic Wildfire Prevention and Community Protection Act," HR 2899 is a radical attempt to force emergency by-pass surgery on California's national forests. The bill explicitly cuts bedrock national environmental laws and policies, and turns control of national forest management over to local counties.
Our national forests need a restoration prescription, not a radical scheme that will increase threats to imperiled species and habitats, driving them closer to the brink of extinction and potentially increasing fire hazards.
Please take action today by e-mailing, phoning, or faxing key legislators and ask them to reject this unnecessary and poorly constructed legislative proposal. Contact Governor Schwarzenegger also, and let him know that we need his help to oppose this bill. Contact information can be found at the end of this message. Please pass this action alert on to your friends and colleagues as well.
HR 2899 --
- Fails to define "forest restoration activities" - leaving potential actions, such as salvage logging, wide open without public oversight
- Allows local county governments to propose their own version of fuels reduction projects -- while eliminating the public's right to appeal or seek judicial review
- Eliminates federal jurisdiction over public lands
- By-passes the requirements of both the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Forest Management Act
Proponents of the bill - Congressmen Wally Herger, Tom McClintock, Dan Lungren and George Radanovich - have been pushing the idea of applying the Quincy Library Group model across the entire West. In truth, the QLG is a model for corruption, not collaboration. The QLG's two self described "environmentalists" received over $470,000 in payments primarily from Sierra Pacific Industries and the county governments that benefit from the logging...funds that were used to fight the conservation movement in the Sierra. (Read more here).
The forest products industry has tremendous influence over local county governments in many rural forest communities in Northern California. This bill would give them virtually unlimited access to publicly owned forest resources, while cutting out the public's right to oversee and appeal decisions that may have long term and irreparably damaging consequences for ecological processes and species survival.
What you can do:
E-mail, phone or fax....
Senator Dianne Feinstein
San Francisco:
Phone: (415) 393-0707
Fax: (415) 393-0710
Washington D.C. Office
Phone: (202) 224-3841
Fax: (202) 228-3954
E-mail : (Click to contact from website)
Senator Barbara Boxer
Sacramento:
Phone: (916) 448-2787
Fax: (916) 448-2563; San Francisco: Ph: (415) 403-0100; Fax: (415) 956-6701
Washington D.C. Office
Phone: (202) 224-3553 E-mail: (Click to contact from website)
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-558-3160
E-mail: (Click to contact from website)
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Ph (202) 225-4965 in Washington, D.C.; San Francisco: (415) 556-4862; E-mail: sf.nancy@mail.house.gov
Chairman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Chair, Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands Ph (202) 226-7736 Fax: (202) 226-2301
E-mail: (Click to contact from website)
George Miller (D-CA, East Bay area), member House Committee on Natural Resources Phone 202-225-2095
Fax: 202-225-5609; Richmond office: phone: 510-262-6500
Fax: 510-222-1306
E-mail: George.Miller@mail.house.gov
Grace Napolitano (D-CA, LA area), member House Committee on Natural Resources
Phone 202-225-5256
Fax: 202-225-0027
E-mail: (Click to contact from website)
Lois Capps (D-CA, Ventura County area), member House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands
Phone: (202) 225-3601
Fax: (202) 225-5632
E-mail: (Click to contact from website)
What to say:
Please oppose the failed Quincy Library Group model...reject HR 2899...the misnamed "California Catastrophic Wildfire Prevention and Community Protection Act."
Lead author Republican Wally Herger (R-CA, 2nd Dist) has publicly declared that the bill only applies to the Wildland Urban Interface ("WUI") -- but the bill defines "Covered Forest Lands" as "National Forest System Lands in California." The only "excluded lands" are those in the established Wilderness System. Inventoried roadless areas and wilderness study areas are also open for logging under the bill.
The Obama administration has signaled its intention to put science first when it comes to national resource management. The most current science affirms that logging without appropriate controls increases forest fire hazards.
Fuel treatments should focus on surface and ladder fuels, rather than the larger fire resistant trees coveted by the timber industry, and must be followed by prescribed fire -- or fire conditions will be worsened. This bill makes no such assurances, and cuts out the public's right to appeal or litigate corrupted decision making.
It's time to end the timber industry's long dominance and control over the management of national forest lands -- it is time for new partnerships, and ecology science-based management.
The timber industry was a major beneficiary of the speculation-driven, fraudulent housing market boom. Its crash has affected the entire global economy. We need to move ahead with a new model for creating sustainable green jobs that restore our forests and maximize their carbon storage capacity.
We support FLRA, the Forest Landscape Restoration Act, which fosters sustainable green jobs, not boom and bust economies like the current timber industry model.
Please help us stop this reckless, politically motivated proposal by taking action today, and pass this on to your friends and colleagues. If you need more information, please contact us at info@sierraforestlegacy.org. You can also find many supporting materials, science papers, and information about fire and forests on our website.
You can also let your voice be heard by donating to Sierra Forest Legacy, so we can continue to be a strong and effective champion fighting to protect the Sierra Nevada with its magnificent wild places and unique plants and animals. Click here to make a secure donation.
Thank you for helping to protect the last remaining wild places of the Sierra Nevada's publicly owned National Forests.
"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it does otherwise."
~Aldo Leopold