From: alra@governance.net
Subject: ROADLESS DEADLINE EXTENDED to Tuesday, Sept. 2
Land Rights Network
American Land Rights Association
PO Box 400 – Battle Ground, WA 98604
Phone: 360-687-3087 – Fax: 360-687-2973 – E-mail: alra@landrights.org
Web Address: http://www.landrights.org
Legislative Office: 507 Seward Square SE – Washington, DC 20003
Phone: 202-210-2357 – Fax: 202-543-7126 – E-mail: landrightsnet@aol.com
ROADLESS DEADLINE EXTENDED to Tuesday, Sept. 2
NEW DEADLINE: September 2, 2003
At the request of 14 Environmental groups, the Bush Administration extended the deadline for comments for the TWO SEPARATE ROADLESS RULES to September 2, 2003.
The greens will be making an all out attempt to bring in large numbers of comments.
Now is your chance to participate in a team game. You must go to the www.landrights.org website and download the TWO DIFFERENT NEW & UPDATED comment questionnaires. Fill them out (only eight statements) (we agree with all the statements but you don’t have to).
You can help make the Roadless Rule more fair and prevent the greens from achieving their objective of driving private owners and Federal land users from the forests.
DON’T LET THE CLINTON ROADLESS RULE BE SUCCESSFUL. SEND YOUR COMMENTS NOW.
There are two Roadless Rule comment periods running simultaneously. Both are important and all allies nationally should comment.
The first is for comments supporting a proposal to amend the Roadless Rule to exempt the Tongass and Chugach National Forests from the Rule until the Forest Service promulgates a Final Roadless Rule. These comments should be sent by mail, e-mail or fax to:
Roadless TNF (1)
Content Analysis Team
USDA Forest Service
PO Box 22810
Salt Lake City, UT 84122
roadlesstnf@fs.fed.us
Fax #801-880-2808
NEW DEADLINE: Tuesday, September 2nd
The second is for comments on the proposed final changes to the Roadless Rule. These comments should be sent to:
Roadless Area ANPR (2)
Content Analysis Team
P.O. Box 22777
Salt Lake City, UT, 84122.
roadlessanpr@fs.fed.us
Fax: #801-880-3311
NEW DEADLINE: Tuesday, September 2nd
*****Note that two slightly different comment questionnaires have been created and are available from www.landrights.org. One for each of the two different Forest Service comment periods. All you have to do is download them, fill them out and fax them to the Forest Service. If you go to the website and the Roadless Rule documents are not yet ready, call American Land Rights at (360) 687-3087 and we’ll fax them directly to you.
Or, for simplicity, write one letter, but mail or email a copy to each of the above addresses. Please note that each has a different email address. ALRA strongly encourages its allies in every industry and economic sector to respond to this alert. We need to generate support from opponents of the Roadless Rule nationally to the Forest Service for the exemption, otherwise what's left of the forest products industry in Alaska will be in jeopardy, as well as future access for tourism, recreation, mining and community infrastructure.
A lot of comments on these issues will help with the upcoming Roadless Rule battles yet to come across the country.
Comment Points:
(You can put these in your own words. Or use them as your comments. The more you make them personal, the more power they have.) YOU CAN DOWNLOAD A FORMATTED VERSION FROM www.landrights.org
-----1. I support the decision of Wyoming Judge Brimmer concerning the Clinton Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The Clinton Roadless Area Conservation Rule should be set aside by the USDA Forest Service and President Bush. Any and all restrictions placed on Nationl Forest land management activities should be only through the preparation and approval of the local National Forest land management plan and not through any national mandates.
AGREE DISAGREE NO OPINION
-----2. I support the proposed rulemaking to permanently exempt the Tongass and Chugach national forests from the Roadless Rule. The Roadless Rule is one of the most anti-access, anti-recreation, anti-forestry, anti-tourism, and anti-multiple use actions ever undertaken.
AGREE DISAGREE NO OPINION
-----3. Application of the rule in the Tongass and Chugach would have long term social and economic consequences on public access, transportation, tourism, power transmission grids, recreation, mining, forest health and other legitimate public uses. It would shut down access to most of the forest and foreclose on future opportunities in a growing state that already has more land in protected status than all other states combined.
AGREE DISAGREE NO OPINION
-----4. The Roadless Rule violates a number of federal statutes, including ANILCA, which set aside millions of acres in Alaska from development with the understanding that there would be no more administrative land withdrawals. ANILCA struck a balance between protected areas and areas managed for multiple use. Application of the Roadless Rule would destroy that balance and further compromise the economic and social needs of the people of Alaska.
AGREE DISAGREE NO OPINION
-----5. Since the Tongass and Chugach are among the most protected forests in America, the Roadless Rule would do little to provide additional environmental protection while threatening legitimate multiple use activities, community and infrastructure development, and economic growth.
AGREE DISAGREE NO OPINION
-----6. If Alaska is excluded from the Roadless Rule, the Chugach and Tongass will continue to be managed pursuant to the existing forest plans that were developed through an exhaustive planning process based on years of scientific review. Under those plans, management emphasis will continue to focus on preserving the wild character of the forest. No commercial logging would occur in the Chugach under the existing plan.
AGREE DISAGREE NO OPINION
-----7. Both the Tongass and Chugach are not imperiled nor are the species that inhabit the forests. Timber harvest would be prohibited on 95 percent of the national forest lands in Alaska under existing forest plans if the state is excluded from the Roadless Rule. Only three percent of roadless areas in the Tongass would be open to logging.
AGREE DISAGREE NO OPINION
-----8. Exempting the Tongass from the Roadless Rule would not change any old-growth reserves, riparian buffers, beach fringe buffers, wilderness designations, and other protections now in place. Any development allowed to proceed will do so only after undergoing a comprehensive environmental review and public process.
AGREE DISAGREE NO OPINION
Some of the nation’s largest environmental groups are mobilizing their members to block the exemption. Make sure your opinion is registered by Tuesday, September 2nd – please write today!
The bulk of this information came from the Resource Development Council at 276-0700 and Concerned Alaskans For Resources and Environment at Phone: 907-247-9266.
Email: care@kpunet.net
*** Note: one written letter will suffice, but mail or email a copy the letter to each of the addresses above. Each has a different mailing address, fax number and email address.
Concerned Alaskans for Resources and Environment (C.A.R.E.) is a grassroots organization of citizens, small businesses, and industry supporting access to and use of our natural resources.
The success Concerned Alaskans for Resources and Environment depends on you and every Alaskan who believes that the need for environmental protection must be balanced with the needs of the people.
ACTION ITEMS:
1. Go to www.landrights.org to get your copies of BOTH Roadless Area comment questionnaires. Fax them to the Forest Service.
2. Write your own comments using the material in this e-mail.
3. Call at least three friends to make sure they know about the comment deadline and know where to go to get the comment material.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE WIDELY.
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