Emboldened by the November elections, the timber industry and its government allies are pushing the worst assault on our forests since the Reagan era. After last summer's fires in the drought-stricken parts of the West, the Bush administration launched the Orwellian "Healthy Forests Initiative" to dramatically increase commercial logging. Industry allies Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) and Rep. Scott McInnis (R-CO) have each introduced similar bills based on two key ruses:

Lie #1: Commercial logging is needed to prevent fires. Scientists have consistently found commercial logging to harm forests and to increase both fire risk and severity. More than 200 esteemed scientists have called on Bush to halt all commercial logging activities on national forests. The Forest Service's own researchers have shown that protection of houses in forested areas depends almost entirely on clearing nearby underbrush, not on wildlands logging. The administration, however, has ignored this research and focused on commercial logging, leaving forests and homeowners at risk of fire. A recent review of current "emergency hazardous fuels" projects in Sierra Nevada national forests found over 90% of the funds to be subsidizing commercial timber sales rather than removal of hazardous underbrush. Cynically, logging proponents have tried to blame environmentalists for the blazes. This leads to the second major ruse.

Lie #2: Public participation hampers forest management. "Healthy Forests" supporters have consistently sought to curtail public input to forestry decisions and to eliminate use of the courts when agencies don't follow their own laws. Logging is their clear priority, since underbrush reduction projects are already exempt from environmental review. Without such crucial public input and legal recourse, the Forest Service can greenwash old destructive timber sales as projects for forest health and fire reduction.

These policy changes are likely to impact California directly and very soon. The Forest Service has chosen sites in the Mendocino and Eldorado National Forests as test sites for the proposed policies. We fear that the Bush administration will use these regulations to gut the Sierra Nevada Framework. Meanwhile, the Forest Service openly supports plans to allow the logging of sequoias and clearcutting in the new Giant Sequoia National Monument. (See Forest Service Bushwhacks Giant Sequoia National Monument for details.) It has also launched an initiative to cut 176,000 acres of the Sierra Nevada to "research" the effects of logging on the spotted owl.

Back in Washington, Rep. McInnis and Sen. Craig are poised to aggressively reintroduce their lawless-logging bills. In the previous Congress they were trying to lure key Democrats into joining them. Our elected representatives must actively oppose these bad bills and stop the Bush-led assaults on our forests.

What you can do:

Please call your Congressperson and Senators and let them know that our national forests don't need commercial logging. As scientists tell us, the solution to the fire issue is underbrush reduction near homes, not more timber sales. Also, urge them to oppose any measure that would in any way erode public participation or our recourse to the courts.

Also, the next session of Congress will include the reintroduction of the Sierra Club-backed National Forest Protection and Restoration Act, the only legislation to propose full protection from commercial logging while also providing genuine fire-risk reduction and taxpayer savings. Many of California's Congresspersons cosponsored this bill in the previous session. Please ask Rep. Mike Thompson (202-225-3311) to join his colleagues in endorsing this important legislation this year.

For more information: www.sierraclub.org/logging.

Senator Barbara Boxer
Tel. 202-224-3553
Fax: 415-956-6701