Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 12:50:57 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Tyler Bell Subject: Re: [ND-BIRDS] ROADLESS AREA DEIS RELEASE/COMMENTS NEEDED TO FEDERALAGENCIES Comments: To: MD-SMAS-GENERAL@LIST.AUDUBON.ORG Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable YOUR COMMENTS URGENTLY NEEDED The US Forest Service has released the Draft Environmental Impact = Statement (DEIS) ordered by President Clinton to assess potential protection for roughly 50 million acres of unprotected roadless areas in America's = national forests. Roadless areas protect habitat for multitudes of wild species dependent upon clean water, unbroken forest, old growth, and the security = of undeveloped wildness. The good news is that the Administration is taking a giant step forward by proposing to protect this wildland realm from future roadbuilding. The = bad news: The government's preferred alternative, #2B still allows logging = and other forms of resource extraction to occur in roadless areas. Also, it fails to protect wildlands from motorized all-terrain vehicles. Please write to urge the Feds to ADOPT A MODIFIED ALTERNATIVE 4D to: *Protect all inventoried and uninventoried roadless areas regardless of = size, including those in SE Alaska's extremely threatened Tongass National = Forest. (The current proposal would defer decisions on these areas to future land planning efforts:. *Prohibit not just commercial logging but other forms of resource = extraction, too. *Maintain the wilderness character of all undeveloped wildlands. SEND COMMENTS TO: USDA Forest Service-CAET Attn: Roadless Areas Proposed Rule PO Box 221090 Salt Lake City, UT 84122 Comments by email www.roadless.fs.fed.us=20 Thank you. And remember, we obtain a very small percentage (less than 5%) = of our building needs from our publicly owned forest lands. Tyler Bell mailto:bell@acnatsci.org California, MD http://www.audubon.org/listserv/md-smas-general.html http://www.audubon.org/listserv/nd-birds.html ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================