This link to the Wilderness Society http://action.wilderness.org/wilderness/ describes in detail what's about to happen to our National Forests. And here's a brief excerpt from a recent mailing I received from Paul Richards' (D-Montana) senate campaign.
"STOP BUSH'S PLAN TO SELL OFF OUR NATIONAL FORESTS"
Paul Richards, Democratic candidate for Senate in Montana and courageous lifelong advocate for the environment, is leading the fight to stop the reckless decimation of our national forests. Please read Paul's personal message to you below, and join him in being a champion for our forest heritage by submitting this action page.
After six years of undermining protections for public lands and forests, President Bush's FY 2007 budget proposes to sell more than a quarter of a million acres of public lands. This is another example of the Bush administration's loyalty to the logging, oil and gas industries. According to the New York Times, the Department of Interior's budget documents show that they plan to allow companies to pump about billion in oil and natural gas without paying royalties.
A total of 304,370 acres of national forests across the country would be up for auction under the President's proposal; including over 12,000 acres in Montana (my home state), 75,000 acres in California, 25,000 acres in Idaho, 21,000 acres in Colorado and 21,000 acres in Missouri, 17,000 in Wyoming and 15,000 in South Dakota. Many of the lands up for sale provide important wildlife habitat, clean drinking water and air, and a natural legacy for future generations.
We only have until March 30 to get our comments into the National Forest Service. Please join me in telling the Forest Service not to sell off our public lands to environmentally hostile corporations and condo developers!
Thank you,
Paul Richards
That this is happening is partly our responsibility. The environmental movement is fractured into groups, then smaller and smaller groups. We haven't combined our voices, nor found a way to combine the environmental movement with another movement that, together, would be able to get Congress' attention and action.
What's about to happen to our forests is just what will continue to happen if we continue to send single-issue petitions. We're fractured, divided, ineffective. Now they're taking our National Forests. Obviously, our voice as environmentalists hasn't been enough to convince Washington.
The only reason they can get away with this is because they run Congress. Without Congress, they couldn't have gotten this bill into law.
Every once in a while, Mother Earth gives her children a gift. This time, she's convinced the idiots in Washington to do something that will unite us.
The only way to save the forests left to us now, is to get Congress to back off by presenting our opposition in a way that really concerns them. Really scares them. Obviously, how we as individuals feel about this isn't something that concerns them enough to do what's right. Obviously, our individual voices, when delivered through individual organizations, aren't effective enough, either.
Let's do it right, and send them a message they can't ignore.
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