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Bank Of America Investment Washington, DC: Today the nation's number two forest official issued a precedent-setting decision that could greatly impact America's National Forests. Agriculture Department Undersecretary Mark Rey, a former top timber industry lobbyist, approved logging on 46,000 acres of forest on Montana's Bitteroot National Forest - threatening prime habitat for the imperiled bull trout and other wildlife. By signing off on the proposed timber sale the Undersecretary removed the ability of citizens to file appeals on the project and insures that the Forest Service will be taken to court.

mail campaign three years ago when the Clinton administration proposed rules to ban new logging roads on 58 million acres of national forests. Now, as they try to keep the Bush administration from rolling back those rules, environmentalists regularly note that the Forest Service received 2.5 million comments on the policy, with more than 95 percent in support. They don' mails and preprinted postcards.

Investment Opportunity "The Bush Administration is chopping away at the basic laws that protect our National Forests from unchecked logging and other development," said Melanie Griffin, director of the Sierra Club's Land Protection Program. "We call on Undersecretary Mark Rey to listen to the American public and protect our National Forests for future generations, not sacrifice them for short term industry profit."

With this decision, the Bush Administration has given the green light to the timber industry to forge ahead with destructive logging projects in this pristine rainforest.

Banc Of America Investment The "Burned Area Recovery" timber sale, the largest salvage logging project in the history of the Forest Service, is designed to log portions of the Bitteroot National Forest that were burned in the summer of 2000. The Forest Service wants to log more than 181 million board feet from the burnt forest despite opposition from local citizens and scientific evidence that shows logging increases sediment in streams. Downed and burned trees reduce erosion, enrich the soil and provide habitat for woodpeckers and other wildlife. A significant portion of the timber sale is planned for previously unroaded areas that provide habitat for the threatened bull trout. Also, allowing natural processes in burnt forests increases the ability of the forest to recover.

The Bush administration has agreed to revise environmental rules restricting some logging of federal lands, as part of a proposed settlement of a lawsuit brought by the timber industry. Timber industry and administration officials said they expected the changes to ease requirements for detailed surveys of forest life, including snails and fungi, which can take years to complete. Loggers see the "survey and manage" rules as a hurdle to meeting the projections of the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, which was meant to be a compromise between wildlife protection and timber cutting.

Banking Investment "This project will cause impacts that affect the forest for years to come and ignores the 4400 citizen comments that opposed the timber sale," said Jennifer Ferenstein, President of the Sierra Club and a Montanan. "This decision gives the concerned citizen no other alternative than to take the Forest Service to court."

The Bush administration is proving that they are increasing commercial timber sales at the expense of community protection. The Bush administration Forest Service spent $90, 000 on a public relations firm to sell its logging plan for the Sierra Nevada, but they are busy cutting funds from community protection. //www.sfgate. article.cgi file=/ BAG295HLG71.DTL

Investment Solution Strategic In another move today, Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth issued a directive to unravel protections for our undeveloped wild areas in National Forests, allowing new, destructive development and logging in 58.5 million acres of unspoiled forests.

Michael Francis, a forest specialist for the Wilderness Society, said the White House's position that it supports roadless policy is nothing but a "ruse." "They have no intention of protecting wild forests for future generations, " he said. The Clinton administration planned to protect these forests as part of its sweeping plan to ban new road building and commercial logging in 58.5 million acres of national forests across the country.

Investment Banking Services In recent months, the Forest Service has released a series of policy changes that severely undermine protections for National Forests. Recent directives have opened the door to logging in roadless areas of the Tongass National Forest, the largest remaining temperate rainforest on earth and home to grizzly bears and wild salmon. Another recent proposal would make it easier for the Forest Service to use a loophole called "categorical exclusions" to fast-track destructive logging projects?even if the logging will harm endangered species or spoil a wild forest roadless area.

Bank Investment Road construction is particularly damaging to forests. Of the 440,000 miles of roads in the National Forest System, only 20 percent of these receive regular maintenance. These roads dump sediment into streams, cause damage to fish and wildlife habitat and increase the cost of water filtration for towns.

Alternative Investment "Instead of listening to the two million public comments in favor of fully protecting wild forests, the Forest Service is opening the door to the timber industry to trash our nation's forests for private profit," said Griffin. "The least the Forest Service could do is protect these last wild areas of our National Forests."

Online Investment Services National Sierra Club - 12/17/2001

Topic: Forests & Trees

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