MCKINNEY FOREST PROTECTION BILL

[billysun@selway.umt.edu (Billy Stern)]

  ACTION:  MCKINNEY FOREST PROTECTION BILL
  
  Why is this action alert regarding forest protection a dioxin issue?
  
  Getting big timber and their related paper producers out of our forests
  will force them to become overall more responsible managers of their own
  forest and resources.
  
  This will lead them to take recycling even more seriously, and to reassess
  the use of nonwood fibers, both of which can be more easily bleached using
  non-chlorine chemicals and methods.
  
  Also, less intrusion into roadless area and our national forests in general
  will reduce the spread of noxious weed, thus reducing the need for
  pesticides.
  
  Please distribute far and wide!
  
  
  
   ACTION:  MCKINNEY FOREST PROTECTION BILL
  
   ***TAKE ACTION***TAKE ACTION****TAKE ACTION****TAKE ACTION***
  
   Call the Capitol Switchboard, toll free at  1-888-723-5246.
  
   In June, Sierra Club launched a nationwide public outreach campaign to urge
   fundamental reform of the Forest Service and released a report --
   "Stewardship or Stumps: National Forests at the Crossroads" --  marking 100
   years of commercial logging in our National Forests.  The report revealed
   that after one hundred years of allowing timber companies into our public
   forests, it is obvious that the Forest Service hasn't been able to maintain a
   balance between commercial logging and other critical purposes of our
   forests, such as providing wildlife habitat, recreation, and water quality
   protection.  Well, one member of Congress got the message and is going to do
   something about it!
  
   On Monday, Sept. 8, Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) sent a letter to
   her fellow members of Congress indicating her intention to introduce the
   National Forest Protection and Restoration Act of 1997 "to end the timber
   sales program on our federal public lands."
  
   McKinney's letter says that despite the "severe habitat destruction, agency
   corruption and lawlessness, floods, mudslides, and enormous losses to
   taxpayers" caused by 100 years of logging, "the timber industry's supporters
   in Congress are now threatening legislation which would increase logging
   levels, further erode environmental laws and government accountability, and
   foster the destruction of America's precious and irreplaceable natural
   heritage.  McKinney's legislation will:
  
   * end the timber sales program on National Forests, BLM lands and National
   Wildlife Refuges, phasing out existing sales over two years;
  
   * it will redirect funds in agency off-budget logging accounts to worker
   retraining, as well as payments to states to compensate counties for
   reduction in revenue-sharing payments;
  
   * authorize appropriations for ecological restoration on federal public lands
   at a maximum of one-third the amount previously appropriated annually for
   expenses of the timber sales program; and
  
   * save taxpayers a net sum of over $300 million annually.
  
   McKinney is calling upon her fellow members of Congress to become original
   cosponsors of the "National Forest Protection and Restoration Act."  But they
   need to hear from you!  Please let your representative know that you want
   them to take a leadership role in forest protection efforts.  Ask them to
   become an **original** cosponsor of Rep. McKinney's bill.
  
  Billy Stern
  PO Box 8251
  Native Forest Network
  Missoula, MT 59807
  PH  (406) 542-7343
  FX  (406) 542-7347
  Billysun@wildrockies.org
  
  Billy Stern
  PO Box 8251
  Native Forest Network
  Missoula, MT 59807
  PH  (406) 542-7343
  FX  (406) 542-7347
  Billysun@wildrockies.org
  
  Billy Stern
  619 Cleveland
  Missoula, MT 59801
  (406) 542-3641
  (406) 542-7347 fax