Volume 4, No. 7
October 27, 2000

As the political heat turns red hot this election year, there's a growing assumption that major policies affecting our national forests will - of necessity - be highly politicized. Without question, politics now play a significant role in national forest decision-making. Nowhere is this fact more evident than the Forest Service's proposed new roadless policy. The policy seems destined to bear the mark of both scientific underpinnings and political compromise. This FSEEE E-Activist brings a plea to strengthen its scientific validity. A critically important step toward this end would be to include Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the nation's largest, in the new policy. As currently proposed, the Tongass would be exempted from the ban on road building in roadless areas. We find no scientifically defensible reason for the exemption.

About three years ago, President Clinton provided his first strong indication that he intended to pass on to future generations a land legacy that included a major portion of our National Forest System. Referring to our nation's 54 million acres of unprotected national forest roadless areas, the president stated, "These unspoiled places must be managed through science, not politics." Yet, today, as Clinton's tenure as president draws to a close, that promise remains unfulfilled. True, the Forest Service has unveiled a proposed roadless policy that would ban road building from tens of millions of acres of national forest lands. And true, this same policy will likely be adopted before Clinton leaves office. The problem is, the policy as it now stands has a gaping hole. The forest that happens to be planning the highest levels of road building and logging in roadless areas over the next several years is the Tongass. And so it should come as no surprise that the Forest Service has proposed to exempt the Tongass from the anticipated ban on road building.

This exemption would be an unfortunate and largely irreversible mistake. The Tongass National Forest harbors the largest remaining tracts of old-growth temperate rainforest in the world. Unlike most national forests, the Tongass still encompasses many undisturbed watersheds with a full complement of all native species, including productive populations of bald eagles, wolves, black-tailed deer, brown bears, marten, five species of salmon, and a variety of forest birds. Yet about two million acres of the Tongass's roadless areas remain open to development, including 450,000 acres of old-growth forest. Because so much of the low-elevation old growth of the Tongass has already been clearcut, the remaining intact forest is critically important to the continued productivity of the region's fish and wildlife.

More than 300 leading scientists, including Paul Ehrlich, Thomas Lovejoy, and E. O. Wilson, in a joint letter to President Clinton, had this to say about Tongass roadless areas: "These areas are critical because they represent the least disturbed habitats in an almost universally disturbed landscape. ...The ecological risks associated with developing these areas are extremely high, and may jeopardize fishing, hunting, tourism, recreation, and subsistence in Southeast Alaska." These same scientists went on to urge the president "to please afford the remaining roadless areas within America's largest national forest and our nation's most substantial old-growth forest ecosystem the same level of protection and precautionary management as those in national forests throughout the rest of the United States."

That sentiment, expressed by many of the finest scientific minds in the country, leaves little more to be said. Except to echo this same sentiment in a flood of letters and email communications to the president and the vice president.

The Clinton administration is likely to make its decision on the proposed roadless policy sometime in November or early December. Please send a letter to the president today! The address to write to is:

The Honorable William J. Clinton President of the United States The White House Washington, D.C. 20500

Please send a copy of your letter to Vice President Al Gore:

The Honorable Al Gore Vice President of the United States Old Executive Office Building, Room 274 Washington, D.C. 20503

Or if your prefer, you may send an email message to the following addresses:

Via the web: Send a message to the President

Via email: president@whitehouse.gov

The Vice President Via the web: Send a message to the Vice President

Via email: vice.president@whitehouse.gov

Here is a SAMPLE LETTER that you may use to help write your own personal letter:

Dear Mr. President:

Thank you for your expressed interest in protecting roadless areas on national forest lands. Please direct the Forest Service to include Alaska's Tongass National Forest in the roadless policy to be adopted under your administration. The roadless lands of the Tongass include 450,000 acres of old-growth forest with extremely high values for fish and wildlife. The scientific, scenic, recreational, and subsistence values of the Tongass are too important to squander through political compromise. The time is now to leave the land legacy you have promised to future generations of Americans.

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME YOUR MAILING ADDRESS

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