#112 WILD NORTHWEST, September 28, 2004

A Message from Northwest Ecosystem Alliance

Keeping the Northwest Wild

Smith Logging Rider Threatens Public Trust and Old-Growth Forests Sneaky legislative rider would prevent legal review of aggressive logging plans in southern Oregon

Your calls to Senator Murray, Senator Cantwell, and Representative Norm Dicks are needed to help avert an unnatural disaster. Each autumn, Congress develops appropriations bills that fund federal government programs and institutions. This year, Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) announced his plans to attach a legislative "rider" to one of the funding bills that would suspend environmental laws and prohibit judicial review of the Biscuit post-fire logging project on the Siskiyou National Forest -- one of the largest federal logging projects in modern history. The Smith rider is intended to subvert legal proceedings currently underway that may find illegal Forest Service plans to log inside old-growth reserves. The Smith rider has been broadly condemned by editorial boards across the Pacific Northwest.

In addition, Senator Smith may also attach a separate rider that would require the establishment of tree plantations on federal lands subject to fire, storms, and other natural occurrences. Tree plantations have repeatedly been shown to increase the spread of fire, disease, and pathogens.

Please call Senator Murray, Senator Cantwell, and Representative Norm Dicks by Friday, October 1. Ask for the legislative staff that works on forest issues. Tell them you support a "clean" appropriations bill that has no legislative riders attached. Let them know you oppose legislative riders that suspend environmental laws and prohibit normal judicial review, and that require inappropriate and harmful management of public forests across the nation.

Call:
Senator Maria Cantwell, 202-224-3441 or 206-220-6400
Senator Patty Murray, 202-224-2621 or 206-553-5545
Representative Norm Dicks, 202-225-5916 or 1-800-947-6676
Or use the Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3124

You can also find your elected representatives at http://www.vote-smart.org/

For a Scientist's Opinion of the Smith rider, see
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2004/09/24/ed.col.biscuit.0924.html

For the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial on the Smith rider, see
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/192339_ridered.html

For the Oregonian Editorial on the rider, see
http://www.oregonlive.com/editorials/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/109611387071980.xml

Thank you for making a call to stop the Smith rider!

Erin Moore
Communications Coordinator
Northwest Ecosystem Alliance
1208 Bay St., Ste. 201
Bellingham, WA 98225
360.671.9950 ext. 24