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Show From the Utah Environmental Congress: PRESIDENT CLINTON'S LATEST ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE By Denise Boggs When President Clinton made his announcement in George Washington National Forest on October 12, 1999 that he was taking steps to protect more than 50 million roadless area acres contained within the National Forest system, both the media and for the most part the environmental community, took him at his word. Based on an editorial appearing in the Deseret News and the local news coverage, Utah's media was no exception. The UEC too was initially very excited by the prospect of seeing an end to commercial logging, mining and road construction within roadless areas. Upon closer inspection however, the President had done virtually nothing that would be criticizing these activities rather than proposals to ban new roads and cut fewer trees. The Deseret News, borrowing heavily from the rhetoric of western lawmakers, loggers and ranchers, goes on to state that "Clinton's order" would "lock up about half of Utah's 8.4 million acres of national forests." Given that we don't know exactly what the proposed rule is, how can anyone honestly make the claim that nearly half of Utah's National Forests will be "locked up"? By making statements like this the media and local lawmakers such as Senator Bennett and Representative Hansen are engaging in the rhetoric of fear rather than fact regarding the true consequences of certain federal actions impacting public lands in our guarantee these areas would be protected for the future of native plants and wildlife. Instead he had simply sent a memorandum to the Secretary of Agriculture telling him to state. study how these areas might be protected. His "order" did not "ban the construction of new roads in 50 million acres of national forests" as the Deseret News editorialized and many the Clinton Administration's action. "The United States has more timber and virgin forests newspapers and television stations reported. A moratorium on road construction within roadless areas had been in effect for months when the President announced this most recent of Clinton initiatives. Finally, the Deseret News made another oft heard claim in its editorial of responding to today than it did 100 years ago." While it may be true that we have more timber due to the proliferation of private tree farms primarily located in the southeast, we do not have mere virgin old growth forests than we had at the turn of the century. In fact, only approximately 5% of our virgin forests remain and the vast majority of those are located on National Forests in the west. Given that 95% has already been sacrificed, one could hardly argue that environmentalists are being greedy by demanding the remaining 5% be left alone. It is important for the public to realize that only 3.3% of our nation's timber supply come from publicly owned National Forest lands. According to the Forest Service more than 30 times as many jobs and revenue are generated by recreation than logging. As for the oft-stated argument that roads are somehow necessary to maintaining "forest health" CHOOSE ONE: A) “I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree." B) “I am a lumberjack and I'm ok. I sleep all night and I work all day." C) All of the above. we ask why the more than 370,000 miles of roads criss-crossing our National Forests aren't enough to do the job? If intensive management is so essential to maintaining a healthy forest, how did these forests ever survive for millennia without us around to manage them? YES! Instead, the President's “order” simply instructed the Forest Service to prepare 1T. + Chat impact t over this relatively benign and hollow action by the President, Enclosed is my membership contribution of: a proposed rule to be put out for public comment sometime next spring. To what degree this rule would actually protect the less than 1/3 of National Forest lands still considered roadless is an open question. An Envi t will be completed on the proposed rule and will contain several alternatives including a "no action alternative" that is required by law. The public will have an opportunity to comment on this proposal at every stage of the process before it is implemented. More important than the hysteria exhibited by western lawmakers and newspaper editors I want to join the Utah Environmental Congress and to hold the Forest * Service accountable for its irresponsible timber sales and other Management practices that harm our forests. I want to protect our remaining roadless forestlands so that they may be designated as wilderness in the future. are the. false O$25 o$50 O$100 Mane cy O$250 o$500 a Zp http://www.uec-utah.org The Utah Environmental Congress is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations and all contributions are tax deductible to the extent nation as a whole. For example, the Deseret News editorialized that on the Dixie National allowed by law. Forest “beetles are destroying trees at an alarming rate. If some trees were prudently harvested, the infestations could be halted." This statement has no scientific basis whatsoever. In fact the Dixie National Forest recently admitted publicly that years of logging to halt the spread of spruce beetles had failed miserably. In truth, research shows decades of overlogging, fire suppression and livestock grazing have significantly contributed to the current "epidemic" of beetles occurring on some western forests. 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