Fw: Bush wants to block reinstatement of the Roadless Rule

[Guest guest]

Earthjustice

 

The Bush administration wants to challenge our recent courtroom victory for

Roadless forests, but you can fight back by writing USDA Secretary Michael

Johanns today.

 

The Bush Administration wants to block reinstatement of the Roadless Rule...

 

Take action to save our national forests.

http://action.earthjustice.org/campaign/roadless_1006/

 

This September, Earthjustice scored a huge victory for our roadless national

forests when a federal district court ordered the reinstatement of the

Roadless Rule.

 

Today, this victory is under attack, and we need your help to fight back.

 

Here's the situation: Our victory means that roadless areas are once again

protected from road-building and most logging. This is bad news for the

logging, mining, and oil & gas industries... And so they're putting pressure

on their friends in the Bush administration to challenge our victory for

roadless forests.

 

Our win has put the Bush administration on the defensive. Now, we must

safeguard our victory and keep up the pressure to enforce the protections

we've fought so hard to secure.

 

Over the next few weeks, we need your help to generate as many letters as

possible to Secretary of the USDA, Michael Johanns, demanding that he

support protections for our roadless national forests by enforcing the

Roadless Rule.

 

Click here to send your letter today:

http://action.earthjustice.org/campaign/roadless_1006/

 

The future of nearly 50 million acres of wild national forests and

grasslands hangs in the balance. The reasons are too clear to ignore:

 

More roads mean our forests will be exempted from key protections: The

minute a road is cut through a forest, that forest is precluded from

consideration as a " wilderness area, " and thus will not be covered by any of

the Wilderness Area protections afforded by Congress.

 

We don't need more roads: There are already nearly ten times as many miles

of roads through our national forests as there are in the entire interstate

highway system. Even worse, most of these roads are in disrepair. There is

currently an enormous $10 billion backlog in forest road maintenance in the

National Forest System.

 

Old-growth forests are particularly at risk: Roadless areas house many of

our last pristine stands of old-growth forest. Many of these majestic trees

have stood for hundreds of years. By opening roadless areas for

road-building the Bush administration will be threatening natural treasures

that cannot be replaced in our lifetime.

 

America's last road-free national forest areas belong to all of us. These

forests are too important to be turned over to private interests who want to

exploit them for private gain. Together, I know we can save these last

majestic forests for generations to come. Please, take action today.

 

Sincerely,

 

Vawter " Buck " Parker

Executive Director

Earthjustice

http://action.earthjustice.org/campaign/roadless_1006/