SYNOPSIS:

As you all know, we have been actively seeking your support of the Healthy Forests Initiative. This important initiative has been delayed and is being debated again this week in the Senate. Its vote is being delayed by Senators who are allies of those seeking wilderness designations as well as the implementation the Wildlands Project. The Wildlands Project seeks to lock up 50 percent of the forests under restrictions as severe, or more severe, than the wilderness designation.

Senator Feinstein as quoted in Sunday, September 29, 2002 issue of the Orange County Register:

"To lose millions of acres - 6 million this year - of prime American forest is really a hardship," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who unsuccessfully tried to sell a one-year compromise that would have led to the expedited treatment of about 7 million acres in critical fire danger. "(But) I think that time is running out."

"There are people who truly believe you shouldn't cut a tree in the forest," Feinstein said. "Well, the response to that is, apparently, catastrophic fire, loss of property, loss of life, loss of endangered species habitat and loss of great old-growth ... forest."

For more information on the relationship of Wilderness Designations and the Wildlands Project, see our September Wilderness Alert posted on our web site.

PLEASE CONTACT SENATOR FEINSTEIN WITH THE FAX AND PHONE NUMBERS LISTED AT THE END OF THIS ALERT AND SUPPORT HER IN PASSING THE HEALTHY FORESTS INITIATIVE.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Senator Tom Daschle (D) of South Dakota is delaying a vote on the Healthy Forests Initiative. In the summer he slipped a rider into a bill exempting his state from the very environmental regulations he'd long championed. The management principles contained in the rider are mimicked in the Healthy Forests Initiative. Why did he slip this rider in?

The South Dakota Mountains are at the center of a growing political debate over forest fires. All summer Senator Tim Johnson, also a South Dakota Democrat, had been taking heat from the state's rural communities for allowing environmental groups to stymie forest cleanup, a recipe for fires.

Senator Daschle realized that unless action was taken to address the threats of devastating fires, his fellow democrat would face the anger of the citizens of South Dakota - as well as defeat in the November 2002 elections.

Western Senators have for years pushed for action to address the potential for catastrophic fires in their states. The Senators in support of Wilderness Designations and the Wildlands Project, including Senator Daschle, have prevented them from enacting the same legislation and exemption that Senator Daschle pushed for and implemented his state.

After Senator Daschle's hypocrisy was exposed, western Senators, including Senator Feinstein (D) of California, announced support for and sought the implementation of the Healthy Forests Initiative in their states to address the potential for catastrophic fires.

While the mainstream environmental groups and other supporters of the Wildlands Project have portrayed the Healthy Forest Initiative as an excuse to log, the truth is they are loath to admit that our forests need the type of management practiced by the White Mountain Apache Tribe, as expressed by Arizona Senator Jon Kyle (R) in Senate testimony:

"The White Mountain Apache Tribe has been very smart about the way they have managed the forests. They have not been subject to the same restrictions as has the Forest Service. They have been able to do more prescribed burns. They have been able to do thinning and utilize that small-diameter timber in their mills, and they have taken out modest amounts of medium- and a little bit of larger diameter timber as well."

Senator Kyle has written what he calls "A Healthy Forests Primer." In it he tells the history that led up to the devastating fires, as well as the effects these devastating fires are having on endangered species and watersheds. He also discusses the economic costs as well as the attempts of the environmental organizations, particularly the Sierra Club and the Center for Biodiversity, to stop Forest Service attempts to prevent devastating fires.

Senator Kyle also exposes the Environmentalists excuses, as well as their policy to address these fires, as inadequate. The environmental organizations realize that if the management principals needed to address these and future catastrophic fires are implemented (which would require mechanized methods), they will not be able to lock these areas up in a wilderness designation.

The mainstream environmental organizations would prefer to have catastrophic fires, which are devastating not only to the trees in the forest, but also to endangered species, watersheds, our economy and the communities adjacent to the forests - than risk losing the justification to make these areas wilderness in the future (which is a major threat to the Wildlands Project).

AFTER READING THIS ALERT COMPLETELY I ask you to please educate yourself in this issue and read the full text of Senator Kyle's speech posted on our web site.

as well as this news story related to the Healthy Forests initiative:

Truth Under Fire - Environmentalist claims of vindication go up in smoke - The Wall Street Journal

Please do not fall prey to the emotional appeals of the environmental organizations. For too long we have allowed them to dictate Forest Policy - not on reason - but on a fanatical ideology that seeks to return 50 percent of the United States back to the state it was before the Europeans arrived.

We must all understand the costs of the Wildlands Project, not only to our freedom to responsibly enjoy the forest, but to our economy, national security and way of life.

Please fax Senator Feinstein (D) and tell her you support the Healthy Forest Initiative and demand that the delays by the initiative opponents stop and a vote be taken in the Senate this week.

Also thank her for being one of the original Senators in support of the initiative as well as for not endorsing Senator Boxer's California Wilderness Bill.

Sample fax letter with phone and fax numbers following:

Subject: Support the Healthy Forests Initiative Dear Senator Feinstein, My name is (YOUR NAME) and I am writing to thank you for joining other Senators in supporting the Healthy Forests Initiative and for your continued push to get it implemented. It's time for our forests to be managed and protected by sound policy. I ask that the delays by the initiative opponents stop and a vote be taken in the Senate this week. Our forests have had devastating fires because we have abandoned them. This insanity must stop! I thank you for your support of the Healthy Forest Initiative and for not endorsing Senator Boxer's California Wilderness Bill. Sincerely,

Phone: (415) 393-0707 San Francisco
Phone: (310) 914-7300 Los Angeles
Phone: (619) 231-9712 San Diego
Phone: (559) 485-7430 Fresno

Fax: (415) 989-3242 San Francisco
Fax: (310) 914-7318 Los Angeles
Fax: (619) 231-1108 San Diego
Fax: (559) 485-9689 Fresno

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