I urge all of you to call or e-mail the President asap.



Subject: "Logging without Laws" Bill & Endangered Species Ban passes Senate

"Logging without Laws" Bill & Endangered Species Ban passes Senate

Veto calls to White House needed now!

The Senate has voted to pass the most far reaching assault on our National
Forests in 25 years. H.R. 1158 (called the "rescissions " bill because it
cuts or rescinds funding for existing programs) would waive all federal
laws, with a provision authored by Senator Gorton, so that timber
companies can cut the maximum amount of timber from our National Forests.
In the guise of promoting vastly increased "salvage" logging-which has the
same adverse impacts on fish, wildlife,soil, and other forest resources as
any other kind of logging- the Gorton Amendment attempts to suspends the
nations most basic environmental safeguards.

* This bill puts the government above the law by allowing the Forest
Service and the Bureau of Land Management to waive all federal laws
including ESA, NEPA, & NFMA in order to promote maximum logging.
* It would severely undermine public participation in our forest
management by exempting timber sales from public appeals and severely
limiting court involvement.
* The bill mandates a minimum logging program of 2.3 billion board
feet for each of the next two years. This is nearly double the volume
offered from National Forests in 1994.
* "Salvage timber" is defined so broadly that it could be used to
authorize the logging of live, healthy trees.
* The Gorton Amendment is a real budget buster, with estimated
deficit costs to the Treasury of $200 - 300 million dollars.

Endangered Species Act

An anti-ESA amendment, by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, to the Defense
Appropriations Bill was included in the conference report that was passed
on to the President. Hutchison's amendment would decrease already meager
funding for endangered species listing and habitat designation by $1.5
million. The amendment would also impose a flat ban on the listing of new
species, regardless of how imperiled they may be. It would also bar the
designation of "critical habitat" for previously listed species.

What Can You do

Only a massive outpouring of public concern will persuade President Clinton
that he must intervene on behalf of the public interest. Call, E Mail or
write (but do it quickly) President Clinton asking him to work to remove
these destructive amendments from the DOD and the Rescission
appropriations bills, or veto the bills if these provisions are still
intact when the bills arrive for signature.

Contact the President to express your outrage!
Whitehouse Main Switch Board: (202) 456 - 1111
E Mail Address: president at whitehouse.gov
Mailing address: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington D.C.
20500