As the new home of WashPIRG's environmental work, Environment Washington can be contacted regarding this news release.
SEATTLE—Sportsmen,
religious leaders, concerned Republicans, and environmentalists joined forces
today to launch a drive to collect comments from one million Americans opposing
the Bush administration's proposal to repeal protections for 58.5 million acres
of pristine national forests.
Representatives from the
Washington Public Interest Research Group (WashPIRG), Trout Unlimited, REPAmerica,
the Washington Association of Churches, and The Wilderness Society spoke this
morning at downtown Seattle's Victor Steinbrueck park to voice their diverse
and united support for forest protections.
Today's event was one of
several throughout the country calling on the Bush administration to abandon
its proposal and keep areas such as Olympic National Forest and Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie
National Forest off-limits to logging, drilling and mining. Nationally, areas
protected by the Roadless Rule provide clean drinking water to more than 60
million people, habitat for 1600 endangered species, and extensive opportunities
for hiking, camping, fishing, and hunting. The Roadless Rule protects over two
million acres of pristine forestland in Washington State alone.
"This is a failure
on the part of the Bush administration to act as stewards of our last remaining
wild places. Instead, it's giving to the oil, mining and timber industries what
rightfully belongs to the American people," said Nathan James, Campaign
Coordinator for WashPIRG.
Terry Turner, President
of the Washington Council of Trout Unlimited, expressed his concerns for fish
habitat: "Millions of dollars have been spent and are presently being spent
on recovery efforts to restore our weakened stocks of fish. The results of those
efforts will be greatly compromised if the rollback of the Roadless Rule occurs."
The Roadless Rule was developed
after years of scientific study and 600 local public hearings and 2.2 million
public comments in favor or the rule, including 81,000 comments from Washington
State. But despite several previous pledges to uphold them, the Bush administration
announced its proposal to repeal these protections on July 12.
"The American public
has spoken pretty clearly about this one. Of the 2.2 million public comments
originally submitted regarding this rule, 96 percent were in favor of protections.
This is clearly another case of the Bush administration caving to corporate
interests," explained Torsten Edstam, Campaign Coordinator for WashPIRG.
"We've done it before, but now we're going to send them a million more
comments from concerned Americans to make sure there is no confusion about what
the American people want."
In addition to citing the
environmental impacts of removing roadless protections and the public support
the Roadless Rule has enjoyed, the coalition pointed out that allowing logging
in ancient forests doesn't make economic sense.
"The administration's
proposed rule would enable the Forest Service to build more logging roads the
agency cannot afford for timber sales that don't pay their own way," said
Jim DiPeso, Policy Director for REPAmerica, the national grassroots organization
of Republicans for Environmental Protection. "The maintenance backlog for
existing roads is pushing $10 billion. The first rule of intelligent fiscal
management is, when you're in a hole, stop digging. Instead, the administration
wants to give the Forest Service a bigger shovel."
But most of all, the coalition
stressed the need for concerned Americans to once again voice their support
for America's wild forests.
"Everyone who cares
about the future of our national forests should take the time to write a letter
to the Bush administration," said Robert Pregulman, Executive Director
for WashPIRG. "We need Washington to use its voice today to protect our
last wild forests for tomorrow."
