EARTH DAY PROTESTS TARGET BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S FOREST POLICIES
Environmental Groups Call on Bush to Protect, not Threaten National Forests
Contact: Andrew George, National Forest Protection Alliance- 919-933-2959
Carol Gregory, Greenpeace--- 202-319-2472
Washington- Environmental activists and community groups from more than
twenty cities around the nation held demonstrations, marches, sit-ins and
rallies to protest the Bush administration's attempts to weaken
environmental laws protecting public land, including endangered forests.
These Earth Day protests come just one week before the U.S. House will
consider legislation containing parts of President Bush's controversial,
"Healthy Forest Initiative." The cities included Atlanta, New York,
Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.
"The Bush administration assumes Americans are too distracted by global
politics to care about our national forests here at home," said Andrew
George, Campaign Coordinator for the National Forest Protection Alliance, a
coalition of 130 forest protection groups, including Greenpeace. "This
national day of protest serves to demonstrate how much the public cares
about national forests and signals the beginning of an escalating campaign
to expose, confront and prevent attempts to undermine our environmental laws
and the forests those laws safeguard."
In 2001, the Bush administration handpicked former logging lobbyist Mark Rey
to serve as the Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment, and
oversee the management of 192 million acres of national forest lands. A
industry lobbyist for 18 years, Rey has since initiated a series of
unprecedented rollbacks to the nation's environmental laws that protect
clean water and wildlife habitat and guarantee public oversight and
participation.
"The Bush administration knows that selling off our endangered national
forests to the logging industry is not going to fly with the public, so they
are trying to take away our rights to weigh in on decisions about our public
lands," said Scott Paul, Greenpeace Forest Campaigner. "This year's Earth
Day must be an Earth Day of Protest to warn the Bush administration that
Americans will not sit quietly and let their government endanger our forests
or our freedoms."
In June, the National Forest Protection Alliance along with Greenpeace will
release its latest findings on ten of the most endangered forests in the
United States.
KEY ACTIONS:
GEORGIA - Rally at THE USFS REGION 8 HEADQUARTERS IN ATLANTA, GA.
Lead organization: Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project
Tracy Davids
P.O. Box 3141
Asheville, NC 28801
(828) 258-2667
tracy@sabp.net">tracy@sabp.net>;tracy@sabp.net
MONTANA - RALLY and march to the regional Forest Service Headquarters.
Lead organization: National Forest Protection Alliance
Jeanette Russell
P.O. Box 8264
Missoula, MT 59807
(406) 542-7565
nfpa@forestadvocate.org
WISCONSIN - Rally at region 9 headquarters - April 25
Visuals include a 20 foot tall Paul Bunun. Also organizing a call in day.
Lead organization: American Lands Alliance
Lois Norgard
10368 Columbus Circle
Bloomington, MN 55420
(952) 881-7282
lnorrgard@americanlands.org
MISSOURI - Rally at Congressman Gephardt's St. Louis office
Lead organization: Missouri Forest Alliance
Jim Scheff
20 Crabapple
St. Louis, MO 63132
(314) 991-4190
guava13@juno.com
ARIZONA -Rally and march at the USFS office
Lead organization: Society of Environmental Communicators
Lisa Shelton, Prescott College
301 Grove St.
Prescott, AZ 86301
(928) 445-0379
lshelton@prescott.edu
KENTUCKY - Rally and banner hang.
Lead organization: Kentucky Heartwood
Perrin de Jong
P.O. Box 555
Lexington, KY 40588
(859) 335-9488
kyheartwood@alltel.net
NEW YORK - Tent-in at national fuel headquarters in Buffalo.
Lead organization: NFPA State Delegate
Jason Brady,
263 Richmond Ave. Upper
Buffalo, NY 14222
(716) 884-8179
jbrady@buffalo.com
WASHINGTON - Banner hang.
Lead organization: WWU Environmental Center
Trey Avery, Western Washington University
Viking Union MSA3 - 516 High Street
Bellingham, WA 98225
(360)650-6129
earth@cc.wwu.edu
OREGON - Rally / Critical bike ride at Zip-O-Log Mills - April 22, Earth day
Eugene OR
Lead organization: Cascadia Forest Defenders
Leeanne Siart
P.O. Box 11122
Eugene, OR 97440
(541) 684-8977
swef@efn.org
NEW MEXICO - Rally at USFS headquarters office.
Lead organization: Native Forest Network
Peter Neils
3136-2 Glenwood Drive NW
Albuquerque, NM 87107
(505) 259-2188
peasegrn@swcp.com
TENNESSEE - Earth day event on University of Tennessee campus.
Lead organization: Cherokee Forest Voices
Catherine Murray
1101 Antioch Road
Johnson City, TN 37604
(423) 929-8163
cfvcatherine@worldnet.att.net
WYOMING - Rally at conference where Mark Rey is appearing.
Lead organization: NFPA State Delegate
Steve Gil,
P.O. Box 26
Moose, WY 83012
(307) 690-3852
stevegil13@yahoo.com
PENNSYLVANIA - Rally at federal building in Pittsburgh
Lead organization: NFPA State Delegate
Becky Franz
1894 Beechford Ave.
Moon Twp, PA 15108
(412) 648-4214
thingrnline@msn.com
TEXAS - Rally at federal building. Letter writing effort to Sen. Hutchison
and Rep. Jackson Lee
Lead organization: Live Oak Alliance
Cameron Naficy
P.O. Box 66282
Houston, TX 77006
(713) 529-5147
cameron@ecoethics.org
SAMPLE ADMINSITRATION ROLLBACKS:
.. The Bush Administration continues to claim that its Healthy Forests
Initiative (HFI) will make our public lands more "healthy" or will help
protect communities from wildfires. However, the HFI is nothing more than a
green-washing campaign designed to give logging companies and other
extractive industries free reign over public lands at the expense of true
restoration, community protection and public participation.
· Allowing logging of up to 250 acres without environmental review or
public involvement. Incredibly, the Bush administration claims that cutting
down trees over an area the size of 226 football fields has no impact on the
environment!
· Increasing logging of ancient, old-growth forests while reducing
protections for salmon and ancient forest dependent species such as the
Northern Spotted Owl by gutting critical protections in the Northwest Forest
Plan.
· Reducing protections for threatened and endangered species when
conducting "fuel reduction" logging projects.
· Blocking the implementation of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
· Eliminating critical wildlife and forest protections and public
participation in forest-wide planning by making the National Forest
Management Act (NFMA) regulations non-binding and voluntary.
· Exempting hazardous fuel reduction projects - including large
logging projects that could target ancient forests or roadless areas - from
environmental analysis and public review.
Andrew George
Campaign Coordinator
National Forest Protection Alliance
PO Box 215
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-0215
ph: 919 933 2959
cell: 828 280 6956
andrew@forestadvocate.org
http://www.forestadvocate.org
4:49:45 PM 
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