In this Healthy Forests Initiative update:
1. Healthy Forest Initiative Update
2. Letter from Senator Feinstein stating why she supports thinning as a method of fire suppression
3. Newspaper article reporting on verbal attacks of Senator Feinstein by environmental organizations
4. Send a fax to Senator Feinstein thanking her for supporting the Healthy Forests Initiative - and for not endorsing Senator Boxer's wilderness bill.
5. Wildlands Project Links
The Healthy Forests Initiative will be debated again in 2003. Congressional supporters of the Wildlands
Project (which seeks to return up to 50% of North America to its "pre-European" state), stalled any
action being taken in 2002.
Links to further explain the Wildands Project are at the end of this update.
As we mentioned in our last email update on the wilderness bill (to read this update click here),
Senator Feinstein is being been attacked by environmentalists for her unwillingness to support Senator
Barbara Boxer's wilderness bill and for her support of thinning as a method of fire suppression.
Senator Feinstein has become increasingly concerned with the extreme policies and agenda of the
environmental movement and Senator Boxer. The effect these policies will have on our economy, as well
as on private and public property, should be a concern for all citizens.
With the recent shift of the Democratic Party to the left (as is evident with the elevation of liberal
San Francisco based Nancy Pelosi to House Minority Leader), Senator Feinstein can expect more
opposition to the Healthy Forests Initiative from her own party. The Democratic Party's move to the
left may be good for the policies of the Sierra Club - but bad for us.
The Sierra Club and other environmental organizations opposition to this initiative is based on their
hope to use the wilderness designation in these areas for core habitat and linkage corridors as well as
to restrict human access, a goal of the Wildlands Project. Fire suppression activities such as
mechanical thinning are not allowed under the wilderness designation.
The Sierra Club's position to allow "thinning" only around populated areas has been proven to "protect"
the populated areas, but what protection does it offer to the other parts of the forest populated by
forest animals, including endangered species?
They also support controlled burns, but with some areas having 100 years of accumulated dense growth,
debris and diseased trees, controlled burns would be hard to control - or devastating because of the
fuel loads. The current forests are at 400 plus trees per acre compared to a pre-Columbian density of
30-40 trees per acre.
As reported in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, June 23 2002
"In 2000 alone fires destroyed 8.4 million acres, the worst fire year since the 1950s. Some 800
structures were destroyed many as a fire swept across Los Alamos, New Mexico -- and control and
recovery costs neared $3 billion. The Forest Service's entire budget is $4.9 billion."
As reported in the San Diego Union Tribune on Saturday, November 9th 2002:
"In 2002, 6.7 million acres burned and $1.4 billion was spent fighting fires. The largest, the Biscuit
Fire in Oregon, was declared under control nearly four months after the fire started and consumed
nearly 500,000 acres (our note: including the entire 180,000 acre Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area) and
$161,850,649 was spent for control and rehabilitation."
How many endangered species as well as habitat was lost in the 8.4 million acres that burned in 2000?
How many endangered species as well as habitat was lost in the 6.7 million acres that burned in
2002?
But that's not the end of it. Winter rains and runoff will further devastate these millions of burned
acres of habitat. Increased and accelerated erosion from these burned areas, devoid of ground cover,
will muddy streams, rivers and watersheds, increasing the impact on species living in these waters and
formerly forested watersheds.
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The following letter regarding the Healthy Forests Initiative was sent by Senator Feinstein to Chris Vargas Executive Director of the Warrior's Society. To view the actual letter click here.
October 25, 2002
Dear Mr. Vargas:
Thank you for writing to me about your concerns regarding logging activities to help prevent and
control forest fires. I welcome the opportunity to respond to your concerns.
As you know from watching the news, this year looks to be one of the worst fire years in recent history
for Western fires. This year's catastrophic fire season demonstrates the importance of protecting our
forests through the proper balance of forest management techniques. A continued reliance on fire
suppression without fuel reduction will only doom our forests to new, even larger fire problems in the
future.
For this reason, I have introduced a resolution (S.Con.Res.107) with Senator Craig to support reducing
the overabundance of fuels that have built up in our forests as a result of our fire suppression
policies. Additionally, in 1998, Congress passed the Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group Recovery
Act, which I authored. The Quincy Library Group Project is a pilot project to help find alternative
ways to protect our forests against fire.
California has more public lands at the highest risk of catastrophic fire than any other state.
Clearly, we need to significantly and immediately reduce fuels to prevent future forest fires. I
strongly support removing any impediments to ensuring that thinning and fuel reduction gets done
immediately. And I fully support providing the needed funding to get this job done.
I will continue to monitor the situation regarding forest fires in California and across the nation and
be assured I will do all that I can to prevent future catastrophic fire seasons.
Again, thank you for your letter. I hope you will continue to write me about issues that are important
to you. If you have any additional comments or questions, please feel free to contact my Washington,
D.C. staff at (202)224-3841.
Sincerely yours,
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator
http://feinstein.senate.gov
Sen. Feinstein blames Sierra Club for blocking wildfire bill
SCOTT SONNER, Associated Press Writer
San Francisco Chronicle, Friday, November 1, 2002
(11-01) 12:28 PST SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) --
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., blames environmental ally the Sierra Club for Congress' failure to
pass legislation last month to thin national forests to reduce wildfire threats in the West.
Sierra Club President Carl Pope said Republican leaders are responsible, and a timber industry leader
points the finger at Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., who he accused of "election year
politics."
All sides agree it's unlikely that Congress will move in its lame duck session after Tuesday's general
elections to seek consensus to reduce the threat of fires that have consumed an estimated 6.5 million
acres across the nation this year.
"You have a very polarized community when it comes to fire and how they view fire," Feinstein said.
"The Sierra Club roasted me," she said.
The former mayor of San Francisco has averaged a 91 percent scorecard rating from the League of
Conservation Voters the past six years, but confounds environmentalists by insisting that logging be
used to help ease wildfire threats.
She said she will press the Senate to hold hearings early next year and that she will attempt to build
support among conservationists and others for an emergency program she hopes to develop with Sen. Ron
Wyden, D-Ore., and Republicans on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Feinstein said she was close to securing a bipartisan agreement with Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, that
would have sacrificed some trees to reduce fuel loads and make 7 million acres of forests near urban
areas safer from fires.
"I think the Sierra Club did it in to be honest with you. There was just real opposition," Feinstein
told reporters after a speech to an environmental conference last week at Lake Tahoe.
Feinstein said the Sierra Club made it impossible for her to gather the support she needed among
Democrats to cut off debate and force a vote.
"So the effort kind of collapsed," she said.
Chris West, vice president of the timber industry's American Forest Resource Council based in Portland,
Ore., said Feinstein is partially right. But he puts the blame more squarely on Democratic leaders.
"From our perspective, the reason nothing moved in the Senate that was workable was because of Daschle.
It was all election-year politics," West said.
Craig, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on forests and public lands, offers a similar account of the
Senate's refusal to consider his amendment to a spending bill for the Interior Department that still
needs congressional approval.
"The Dianne Feinsteins of this world have every reason to be frustrated and angry. I think she felt
herself a friend of that organization only to have them bite her as hard as they did," Craig said.
"She kept going to her leadership and got nothing. In the end, Tom (Daschle) did not want to put his
people at risk taking a tough vote -- which was the right vote -- on something the environmental people
have so effectively polarized," he told The Associated Press this week.
Pope said there was agreement on a plan to do emergency thinning in as much as 23 million acres the
Forest Service identified as overstocked forests near homes, known as "urban interface" areas.
But he said GOP leaders refused to provide funding unless normal environmental reviews for projects
outside those areas were suspended, too.
"Basically, they blackmailed the Senate. And we said, `No, that blackmail is not acceptable.' So in
that sense, yes Sen. Feinstein is correct" about the group's role in blocking legislation, he said.
Aides to Daschle said he was willing to expedite thinning, even in some areas outside "urban interface
zones," but not with the prohibitions on legal challenges GOP leaders demanded.
"We agreed that some streamlining of the process makes sense, particularly if you focus most of the
resources on thinning in the urban interface zone. But the notion of depriving folks of opportunities
they have now for judicial review was going too far and something we were not prepared to support,"
said Eric Washburn, a senior legislative to Daschle.
The conflict centers on disagreement over the amount of logging that should be allowed to remove
unnaturally high levels of brush and small trees that have resulted from decades of suppressing fires.
In the past, fires periodically cleared forests of such undergrowth.
Critics say the thinning programs are abused to remove larger, commercial-sized timber and, in some
cases, increase fire risks.
Pope said he doubts any new policy will be adopted during the "lame duck" session of Congress.
"I would think that what was driving people on both sides (last month) is they wanted to take something
home to run on," he said.
Feinstein said she understands environmentalists are distrustful of proposals to use logging to reduce
fire threats.
"What we really need to do is build confidence and work with environmentalists to try to come together,
just as they have here," she said at Lake Tahoe where competing interests have united to work to
restore the lake's clarity.
"This used to be very fractionated community. It is not so any more," she said.
Feinstein also criticized the Bush administration for failing to provide necessary funding.
"Grooming the forests has to become a major priority for this administration. To this date ... it
isn't."
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Improving the health of our forests to reduce the risk of insects, diseases and catastrophic wildfires
is a top priority for President Bush. His proposals will modernize regulations clearing the way for
responsible management that focuses on protecting forests, watersheds, wildlife and communities. Your
comment letters, as well as your employees', that express support for the changes President Bush is
proposing are critically important.
Please take the time to act and let your support be known to policy makers using the automated system
provided by the link below. It will ensure we do have forests to enjoy.
http://capwiz.com/landsense/issues/alert/?alertid=1157026&type=CU
SAMPLE FAX LETTER:
Sample letter (include your name, address and phone number):
Dear Senator Feinstein,
Thank you for your support of forest thinning to suppress and minimize the destructiveness of fires in our National Forests. I fully support the balance use of thinning and thank you for supporting common sense management methods such as this in tandem with controlled burns. We cannot allow these destructive fires to continue to jeopardize our forests and destroy habitat. Millions of acres of habitat have been lost and billions of tax payer dollars have been spent because of the lack of proper management.
I also thank you for not endorsing Senator Boxer's Wilderness Bill. The strong opposition to this bill is one indication that other designations are needed to be implemented that would not limit the public's access of the forest.
We support your continued balanced approach to the management of our public lands.
Sincerely,
Fax numbers:
Fax: (415) 989-3242 San Francisco
Fax: (559) 485-9689 Fresno
Fax: (310) 914-7318 Los Angeles
Fax: (619) 231-1108 San Diego
The Wildlands Project
The California Wilderness Campaign
touts its support of the Wildlands Project
To gain a deeper understanding of the history and ideology of the Wildlands Project, which has its
roots in the Earth First movement, visit this web site.
This site provides information on the
Wildlands Project using the words of the founders of the movement, including Dave Forman, one of the founders of Earth First.
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