Forest Watch News and Events
May 2, 2007
http://www.forestwatch.org
In this issue:
--Take Action to Stop Bush Attack on Endangered Species
--Bush Goes After Roadless Rule AGAIN
--New Deadline for Comments on Conte Wildlife Refuge
--Ecologist E.O. Wilson Says: "Life on this planet can stand no more plundering."
--Natural Turnpike Update
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TAKE ACTION TO STOP BUSH ATTACK ON ENDANGERED SPECIES
Please contact your congressional representatives TODAY and urge them to sign on to a letter protesting the Bush Administration covert plan to destroy the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Internal documents leaked from the Interior Department last month showed that political appointees within the department are planning to subvert the ESA through the imposition of new federal regulations. The plan closely resembles a bill that Rep. Richard Pombo, notorious enemy of the environment, failed to get passed in 2006. (Pombo lost his House seat in last November congressional elections.)
The draft regulations would:
--Allow activities to proceed that are known to threaten species with extinction
--Allow the destruction of habitat restored for the benefit of listed species
--Allow activities known to be harmful to the species to occur within designated critical habitat
--Place severe limits on the listing of new endangered species
--Exclude consideration of historic ranges of species; allow analysis based only on currently occupied range
--Give states veto power over the reintroduction of endangered species
--Allow states to take over most aspects of the Act, including listing and recovery plans
The ESA has stood for over 30 years as the legal "last stand" for hundreds of imperiled species. More than ever, this law is needed to protect and recover species on the brink of oblivion. The Administration attack on the Act can be stopped if enough Congressional opposition can be mustered. Please contact your representative in the U.S. House today and ask them to sign a letter sponsored by Representatives Hinchey, Moran, and Shays, opposing the rewrite of the ESA.
You can find your Representative contact information at www.house.gov, or you can call the Capitol Switchboard- 202-224-3121- and ask for your Representative office.
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BUSH GOES AFTER ROADLESS RULE AGAIN
Undeterred by the weight of public opinion or the law, the Bush Administration is (still) trying to find a way to gut the Roadless Rule. Millions of Americans have submitted public comment in support of these last remaining wild lands on our national forests. Multiple legal decisions have been rendered in favor of the Roadless Areas, and against the current Administration. Nonetheless, on April 9, the Administration declared it was going to appeal the 2006 Ninth Circuit Court ruling, which stated (in no uncertain terms) that the Administration attempt to repeal the Rule was illegal.
The next day, the Administration went after Roadless Areas in the state of Idaho, using a rule that allows states to petition for alterations to the national Roadless Rule as it applies within their borders. Idaho has 9.3 million acres of roadless land. The deadline for the public to comment on the proposal to weaken Idaho roadless area protections is May 10.
To learn more:
http://www.ourforests.org/
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NEW DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS ON CONTE WILDLIFE REFUGE
May 30 is the new deadline for public comments on the management of the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge. This is a "pre-scoping" stage, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is attempting to get a sense of the issues and values at stake. The Refuge is unique within the national wildlife refuge system for being watershed-based and having multiple units. Some 31,000 acres are now part of the Refuge holdings, including the 26,000 acre Nulhegan division in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.
Forest Watch will be making the following points to the FWS regarding its Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP--the functional equivalent of a national forest Forest Plan):
--Ecological restoration, landscape linkage, and biodiversity protection, including the protection and restoration of migratory and endangered species, should be top priorities for the Conte Refuge.
--The FWS should assess how to approach the above priorities in light of global climate change and anticipated shifts in species ranges and habitat needs.
--Snowmobiling should not continue on the Refuge unless a scientifically valid, site-specific study can demonstrate that it is not having a negative effect on wildlife. Forest Watch believes that the FWS should include the CO2 emissions of snowmobiles, as well as the other pollutants they generate, as part of their overall impact on wildlife and their habitats.
--The CCP process should include an analysis of areas suitable for wilderness designation, and of river segments suitable for Wild, Scenic and Recreational status.
--The FWS should assess the potential for and means of achieving either natural recolonization or active restoration of threatenened, endangered, and other rare or imperiled species on the Refuge. E.g., gray wolf, Canada lynx, pine marten, brook trout, Atlantic salmon.
--Management planning should take into account what the Refuge can now or could in the future provide that adjoining lands cannot (e.g., large, unfragmented, unlogged forest blocks; priority placed on rare, endangered, or threatened species; quiet, unmotorized, wildlife-dependent recreation).
Individual written comments are best. Please send yours to:
Bill Perry
Refuge Planner
Northeast Regional Office
300 Westgate Center Drive
Hadley, MA 01035
(413) 253-8371
Fax: (413) 253-8468
Email: northeastplanning@fws.gov
Forest Watch has also posted an Action Letter, "Put Wildlife First on Conte Wildlife Refuge," on its website:
http://forestwatch.org/alert.php?id=36
If you submit our online letter, please take a few moments to add your own thoughts regarding what you value about the Refuge. Thank you!
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ECOLOGIST E.O. WILSON SAYS: "LIFE ON THIS PLANET CAN STAND NO MORE PLUNDERING."
World-renowned ecologist and Harvard professor E.O. Wilson has uttered a dire warning. We must act now to reverse the accelerating rate of species extinction, or face a radically different world within 50 years, one perhaps extremely hostile to human life. Wilson has predicted that if humanity stays on its present course, 30-50 percent of all plant and animal species worldwide will be extinct by 2100.
In an Earth Day op-ed in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Wilson wrote:
"Except for giant meteorite strikes or other such catastrophes, Earth has never experienced anything like the contemporary human juggernaut. We are in a bottleneck of overpopulation and wasteful consumption that could push half of Earth species to extinction in this century...As the newest reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stress, we are carelessly destabilizing the planetary surface in ways harmful to our own welfare. Paramount is the irreversible loss of natural ecosystems and species that make up the human life-support system."
The global extinction crisis may be more directly threatening to human survival than even global climate change, which is becoming a major driver of biological impoverishment.
Wilson believes fantasy high-tech solutions, such as preserving species DNA for future re-embodiment (ala "Jurassic Park") will not save the millions of species at risk. The answer is habitat: "The only way to save Earth biodiversity is by preserving natural environments in reserves large enough to maintain wild populations sustainably."
To learn more see Wilson book, "The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth," 2006, W.W. Norton.
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NATURAL TURNPIKE UPDATE
Forest Watch has been monitoring and commenting on the proposed Natural Turnpike Project on the Green Mountain National Forest over the last year. Following the end of the scoping period last month, the Forest Service has announced a couple of meetings regarding the project, which is located in the Ripton, Vermont area. We urge anyone interested in this multi-faceted project to get involved.
May 15, 2007 Alternatives Generating Workshop. 6-9 p.m., Ripton Elementary School
June 9, 2007 Field Trip, 9 a.m.-12 p.m., project area.
To learn more about either event, contact Dan McKinley, Project Leader, 802-767-4261 x516, or email dmckinley@fs.fed.us.
You may read Forest Watch scoping comments at:
http://www.forestwatch.org/content.php?id=289
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"Those living today will either win the race against extinction or lose it for all time. They will earn either everlasting honor or everlasting contempt."
E.O. Wilson
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Please support Forest Watch efforts to restore and protect wild forests and all our wildlife by going to www.forestwatch.org/join.php and making an online pledge—we’ll invoice you later. Or send a check to Forest Watch, PO Box 188, Richmond, VT. All contributions are tax-deductible. Thanks!
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Forest Watch
May 2, 2007
Forest Watch
PO Box 188
Richmond, VT 05477
802-434-2388
mollie@forestwatch.org
http://www.forestwatch.org
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