Protect America’s Last Wild Forests

Oppose Bush plan to repeal protection of National Forests
For three and a half years, the Bush administration has been undermining the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which protects 58.5 million acres of the country’s 191 million acres of National Forest from logging. But now, the President has proposed to repeal the roadless rule in its entirety - and open the remaining 30% of National Forest land to logging by allowing timber, oil, and mining interests to build roads in these last protected areas. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which came into effect in January 2001, resulted from an extremely thorough and inclusive consultation process involving seven separate Congressional hearings and more than 600 public meetings nationwide reflecting the input of 7 federal agencies, 180 Native American groups and some 25 000 concerned citizens. Despite all this hard work and the unprecedented 2.5 million public comments received on the Roadless Area Conservation Rule (the vast majority supporting the legislation), this Administration has summarily decided to abolish these environmental protections. The new rule will be subject to a 60-day comment period, Please take a moment right now to submit an official comment to Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth and let the Bush administration know that you oppose the wholesale destruction of America's last wild forests.