President Clinton’s announcement to protect 60 million acres of roadless national forests is the final step in an open, participatory process between the forest service and the American public during which nearly 2 million people engaged in the rule-making process.
The new Roadless Area Conservation Rule reflects the public mandate to protect our last wild places from destructive activities like logging and road-building. This conservation plan is one of the most sweeping environmental initiatives of the last 100 years and will ensure that our national forests continue to provide clean water for communities across the country, recreational opportunities for millions of people and critical habitat for rare and endangered species.
If we were to lose these valuable lands through logging and road-building, we would not be able to regenerate their ecosystems for hundreds of years, regardless of any steps taken to “replant” these trees, as was suggested by Harry Seigle in his Jan. 15 Voice of the people letter. Any outdoors enthusiast or scientist knows that a replanted tree farm is not equivalent to a biologically diverse, vibrant, complex forest ecosystem. Tree farms do not provide the necessary habitat for native species or ensure the cleanliness of waterways, nor do they provide the spectacular wilderness landscape highly valued by Americans.
President Clinton’s announcement puts into action what the majority of Americans already believe: We need to protect the last and best of America’s wild heritage.
Unfortunately special interests, including the timber and gas industries, and their allies in Congress, have already threatened to roll back the new wild forest protection policy in spite of its overwhelming public support. We urge Republican Reps. Mark Kirk, Dennis Hastert and Timothy Johnson, and Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, to defend this new rule in order to save our natural heritage for future generations.
