Dear public landowners,
All of us at Friends of the Clearwater want to thank you for all your phone calls, letters, and public comments during the past year, in defense of our natural heritage! It truly takes a nation to keep public lands in public hands, and ward off ill-conceived proposals that could negatively affect wildland ecosystems, and places we love to spend time. Your activism is greatly appreciated, and we wish you a very happy holiday season.
If you are not aware, the logging rider that we wrote to you about last week was properly stripped from the Omnibus Appropriations Act! Your combined actions convinced members of Congress that logging large swaths of National Forests without environmental analysis and public involvement is bad for forests and bad for democracy.
There is one more thing you could can do before the year ends. The Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests has released a “road maintenance” project that includes logging hundreds of acres inside the boundaries of roadless areas. Under a categorical exclusion (no analysis or public involvement), road work would be conducted, as well as logging hundreds of feet off certain roads, and into roadless areas like Meadow Creek, Weitas Creek, Fish & Hungery Creek, and Cove-Mallard. Oddly enough, logging would also occur along roads currently closed to the general public. All of this could take place in January 2016.
Please contact Forest Planner Zach Peterson comments-northern-nezperce@fs.fed.us by Monday December 28. The Forest Service needs to conduct an environmental analysis (EA), at the very least, if the logging component of the road maintenance project moves forward. Public involvement would be guaranteed under an EA.
In defense of our National Forests,
Brett Haverstick
Education & Outreach Director