Help defeat the bush roadless rule

[Redneck Socialist]

John Demos of the American Lands Alliance http://www.americanlands.org/ will be on the Exchange tomorrow morning from 9 to 10 AM (800-892-6477) speaking out against the bush roadless rule. The not so good folks at NHPR have double teamed him with Jason Stock and Charles Neibling (NHTLOA and SPNHF respectively) so he will need some back up. Please, please call in.

Bush's proposed changes would affect 287,900 acres in the WMNF.

There are three points to stress.

One: This is yet another attempt by the bush misadministration to circumvent the will of the people. When President Clinton proposed his roadless plan the comment period stretched over three years and over 600 public hearings were held nationwide. Over 2.5 million comments were submitted of which over 95% supported the plan. The Clinton effort also included an incredibly thorough assessment of roadless areas and extensive scientific analysis. Not surprisingly the bush plan includes none of this. They not issued any scientific analysis justifying a change in the rule, have not issued a new Environmental Impact Statement justifying these changes, and have not held one public hearing. The Bush administration is only giving the public 60 days to comment on the decision to repeal the rule before it becomes final and has completely ignored the over 2.5 million comments advocating for strong roadless protection.

Two: The bush proposal would radically change how our National Forests are managed essentially turning over to the state governor's the responsibility of protecting and managing the roadless areas in our National Forests. The Governor of any State with national forest inventoried roadless areas could petition the Secretary of Agriculture to adopt regulations for management of any roadless areas in the State. Then the Secretary or the Secretary's designee shall make the final decision on any State-specific inventoried roadless area management rules. This is a radical departure from how our forests have traditionally been managed. The building of a management plan for a national forest is a long and complex process with many opportunities for public participation. To have that process subverted at the whim of a state governor aided and abetted by the Secretary of Agriculture is at best undemocratic and at worst a blatant attempt to make an end run around the public process.

Three: This rule potential affects areas under consideration for Wilderness Designation here in NH, namely the Wild River valley and extensions to the Sandwich Range Wilderness. A further attempt to limit public participation in the process.

That's it. Please call in. Go to the link at the beginning of this post for more info

Other links: http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/white/3_WM_fpr_Web/forest_plan/revision/2003_roadless.htm

[Redneck Socialist]

1. Thank you

If you called or tried to call in today, thank you. All but two callers were against bush's proposed rule changes. Chalk one up for the good guys. A small victory to be sure, but a victory non-the-less.

[maxanne]

2. I heard some of it

and I thought Demos did a good job. Laura Knoy even made a pointed remark or two, which she doesn't do nearly often enough, imo.

[Redneck Socialist]

3. I talked with John Demos after the show

and he said that they don't just pre-screen the callers on the show (no surprise there) but they deliberately aim for a balance of callers on whatever the issue of the day is.

[maxanne]

4. oh, boy

NPR has gotten it's last dime from me - between taking $$ from WalMart, and giving Tucker Carlson a show, they've alienated me.

NHPR is so determined to be fair and balanced they are sometimes flat out dishonest. Their coverage of Medicaid Modernization is one example. They are afraid to come out and discuss "mediscam" which is the real issue.

It's disheartening.