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Uphold the Roadless Area Conservation Rule!!

Target: U.S. Congress
Sponsored by: Heritage Forests Campaign

Thanks to pressure from people like you, last year the Bush Administration promised to uphold one of the most significant forest conservation measures in decades. Known as the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, this policy would protect 58.5 million acres of undeveloped national forest land from logging, mining, and drilling. However, in recent months, the Administration, at the behest of special interests, has broken its promise by quietly rolling back core protections for our national forests.

To urge the Bush Administration to keep its promise and protect America's last wild forests, we need your help! Please sign this letter telling the Bush Administration to keep its word, and to the U.S. Forest Service to register your formal opposition to these environmental rollbacks.

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule is the result of the most extensive public rulemaking ever, with over 600 public meetings, and an unprecedented 2.2 million supportive comments. It protects almost one-third of America's last undeveloped national forest land from logging, mining, and most road-building. A fair and balanced plan, the rule garnered bipartisan support from Congress, scientists, and faith-based communities from across the nation.

Among the benefits of this popular conservation policy are clean drinking water for 60 million Americans; protection of critical habitat for more than 1,600 threatened wildlife; and unlimited recreation for hikers, hunters, and anglers.

The Bush Administration, despite its promise to uphold the rule, continues to put central protections in jeopardy through a litany of obscure rollbacks. Just days before Christmas, the Forest Service issued two new directives that would seriously undermine the rule. Among other things, these directives will:

Abolish requirements to conduct environmental and public reviews before logging, mining, and drilling can begin in protected areas;
Exclude more than a dozen of America's most magnificent national forests from critical protection, including Alaska's Tongass National Forest
Eliminate a moratorium on logging, mining, and drilling in millions of acres of national forests critical to wildlife habitat protection.

Please, take just a few moments to let your Congressional Representative know that you want America's Last Wild Places Protected.

deadline: 2-6-2003
goal: 6,000

8,236
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USFS- Content Analysis Team
Attention: Road Policy
PO BOX 221150
Salt Lake City, Utah 84122

RE: Forest Service Interim Directives 7710-2001-3, 1920-2001-1

Dear Mr. Dale Bosworth,

I am writing to ask you to call upon the Bush Administration to keep its promise to uphold one of the most significant forest conservation policies in decades, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Issued in January 2001 after the most extensive public rulemaking in history, the rule protects 58.5 million acres of undeveloped national forest land from logging, mining, and drilling.

I believe your action now is especially urgent given two recent directives quietly issued by the Administration that run contrary to this pledge, undermine the rule, and pose a serious threat to our national forests. That's why I'm sending you -- my Congressional representative -- my official comments strongly opposing these latest Forest Service directives, as well as to Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth.

As you know, last May, after a three-month review and under pressure from Congress and the public, the Bush Administration pledged to uphold the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, promising only minor changes. However, in recent months, special interests working with their allies in the Bush Administration have moved to significantly weaken the national forest protections provided by the rule through a litany of bureaucratic maneuvers.

Just days before Christmas, the Forest Service issued two directives that eliminate a moratorium on road building in previously protected areas. The directives also abolish requirements for regional and local forest service officials to conduct environmental and public reviews before logging, mining, and drilling can begin in protected areas. Officials also have begun a new decision-making process that facilitates new road building, logging, and mining in more than a dozen of America's most magnificent national forests, including Alaska's Tongass National Forest. The Forest Service currently is taking public comment on these directives, until February 19, 2002.

More than 2.2 million Americans already have taken the time to personally tell the Forest Service that they support protecting the last of our wild national forests through the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. But the Bush Administration is apparently listening to the timber and mining special interests and not to us.

And that's why I'm writing to you. I urge you to call upon the Bush Administration to keep its promise to protect America's last wild national forests through the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Because once these forests are gone . . . they're gone forever.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

We signed the “Uphold the Roadless Area Conservation Rule!!” petition!

# 8,239:

4:41 pm PDT, Apr 21, Laura Zanoli, Italy

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5:08 pm PDT, Apr 6, Name not displayed, Wisconsin

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3:53 pm PDT, Mar 30, Silky Wyld, Wisconsin

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7:09 am PDT, Mar 26, Ginger Geronimo, Alabama

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11:05 am PDT, Mar 23, Suzie Gordon, New Hampshire

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4:07 am PDT, Mar 22, Art Deco, Maine

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12:39 pm PDT, Mar 18, Shannon Sultan, Wisconsin

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3:37 pm PDT, Mar 15, BiLL Fowlie, Maine

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5:22 pm PST, Mar 4, Bernadette Ibis, New York

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1:24 pm PST, Feb 25, Daniel Amon, South Carolina

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2:37 am PST, Feb 8, Laurel Burns, Maine

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8:24 am PST, Feb 7, Lavaune Guenther, Wisconsin

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4:46 pm PST, Jan 7, Karen Gray, Indiana

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9:56 pm PST, Nov 27, Name not displayed, Maine

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11:23 am PDT, Sep 18, Kyna Crain, Montana

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10:03 pm PDT, Sep 14, Roxie Schliesmann, Wisconsin

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8:07 pm PDT, Sep 13, LISA SWAIN, Texas

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3:11 am PDT, Sep 2, Kaytie Irvine, California

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2:01 pm PDT, Aug 28, William Harper, Georgia

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2:20 am PDT, Jul 30, Dogan Ozkan, Turkey

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12:05 am PDT, Jul 24, Dana Szemereta, North Carolina

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8:52 am PDT, Jun 14, Hazel Matich, Illinois

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8:02 am PDT, Jun 12, Pauline Houzard, Guadeloupe

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7:42 am PDT, Jun 9, Erika Stone, Virginia

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2:34 pm PDT, Apr 25, Melissa Bardwell, Washington

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7:35 am PDT, Apr 15, Nicky Elizabeth, Maine

# 8,212:

9:35 pm PDT, Apr 11, Kate Katseli, Australia

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8:48 am PDT, Apr 8, Peggy Singh, California

# 8,210:

11:11 pm PDT, Apr 5, Victoria Thomas, Wyoming

# 8,209:

1:57 pm PDT, Mar 25, Richard Hollister, Arizona

# 8,208:

9:47 pm PDT, Mar 22, Jeanne Austin, Pennsylvania
I support this action because their should be areas of the Earth that remain pristine and untouched by Mankind. You know Man can be a destructive force on Earth. Eventually, everything becomes commercialized for "GREED" ! Sometimes, I think it's our middle name, when it comes to the ruthless and the economical game of life !

# 8,207:

6:16 am PDT, Mar 21, Dave-Tami Ballard, Wisconsin

# 8,206:

4:41 pm PDT, Mar 15, Tom Dandry, Canada

# 8,205:

9:40 pm PDT, Mar 11, Lindsay Carpenter, California
Without the Rule, our Roadless Areas would loose necessary protection.

# 8,204:

6:55 pm PST, Feb 13, Jon Marshall Jr, Alabama

# 8,203:

5:22 pm PST, Feb 12, C. Romanelli, Illinois

# 8,202:

5:21 pm PST, Feb 9, Robin Davis, Pennsylvania

# 8,201:

7:35 pm PST, Feb 6, Brian Smith, Missouri

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Uphold the Roadless Area Conservation Rule!!

This petition has been closed.