2/11/03 - ATTACK ON ALASKA'S RAINFOREST AND WILDERNESS

We are coming to you today with an URGENT Action Alert on Alaska's Rainforest and Arctic.

In a flurry of weekend activity the attacks on Alaska's wilderness have gone from bad to worse. As the sweeping Omnibus Appropriations bill moves to the floor of the House and Senate for a final vote, new outrageous anti-environmental provisions, known as "riders," were slipped into the massive spending bill that would reverse the popular Roadless Rule that protects our national forests, allow massive clear cutting in the Tongass National Forest, take the first steps to allow oil-leasing in the Arctic Refuge, increase the risk of oil spills in the Alaska wilderness, and set other terrible national precedents for the way our public lands are treated.

One of our best and last opportunities to stop these terrible anti-environmental riders from becoming law is to pass a motion in the House to "recommit the bill to committee" which would effectively hold up the entire bill until the riders are removed. Your U.S. Representative is a critical player in this issue. Please call your Representative today and
ask him/her to:

*OPPOSE exempting the Tongass and Chugach from the Roadless Rule;

*OPPOSE other riders that would harm Alaska's rainforest;

*SUPPORT efforts to strike all anti-environmental riders from the Appropriations bill; and

*SUPPORT a motion to recommit the Appropriations bill to committee.

A vote on this issue could happen as soon as Wednesday or Thursday of this week. You can make a difference by calling your Representative's office NOW! U.S. Capitol switchboard (202-224-3121)

Click here:
http://action.leaveitwild.org/ctt.asp?u=57697&l=61

for a list of phone numbers and talking points. Office hours are generally 9am to 6pm Eastern Time, but a message left on your Representative's voice mail is nearly as good.

Here's more on what's happening:

Despite the great response to our previous alerts on the Tongass, wilderness opponents are now attacking Alaska's rainforest on three different fronts. As we reported previously, the Senate passed the Omnibus Appropriations bill with an anti-wilderness provision that states that a nine million acre wilderness review underway for the Tongass may not be subject to public appeal or any judicial review by any court in the United States - even if the review is inadequate or incorrect.

Now - behind closed doors - powerful environmental foes have added new anti-environmental riders to the bill. One would exempt the Tongass and Chugach National Forests from the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, also called the "Roadless Rule," which protects the wildest, unlogged portions of our national forests. A second rider would rewrite the law governing the Tongass National Forest to expand the heavily subsidized Tongass timber program, a logging program which is not only bad for taxpayers, losing millions and millions of dollars annually, but also destroys valuable habitat for grizzly bears, wolves, eagles, and wild salmon.

Finally, there is a sneaky provision to allocate taxpayer dollars to plan oil leasing activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge!

Alaska's wild forests and Arctic Refuge are in danger. The time to act is now. Please make a phone call today.

Thank you,

Tim Bristol

Executive Director
Alaska Coalition
http://www.alaskacoalition.org

Mike Matz

Executive Director
Campaign for America's Wilderness
http://www.leaveitwild.org