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Breaking News from America's Progressive Community... Latest
Releases
The press releases posted here have been provided to NewsCenter by the one of the many progressive organizations we have selected to participate. If you would like more information about this press release, you should contact the organization directly. |
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| JANUARY
12, 1999 7:13 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Heritage Forests Ken Rait, 503-283-6343, ext. 210 |
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| Clinton-Gore Have Yet to Fulfill Promise to Save Wilderness | ||||
| WASHINGTON
- January 12 - The following was released today by the Heritage Forests Campaign: While new plans are made to buy more federal land, the Administration has yet to make good on President Clinton's November 1997 pledge to protect forest lands already owned by the American public. The cheapest way for the Clinton-Gore administration to leave a "lands legacy" for the future would be to spare the 30 percent of our National Forests that remains scenic wilderness but is still unprotected. Instead, the Forest Service is currently studying how to build more logging roads there despite a $5 billion to $10 billion dollar road re-construction backlog, and timber corporations hope to clearcut large portions in the near future. President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore in the last two days have made much of their plans to save "open space" and urban greenery, and possibly expand federal forests and wilderness areas. "These are good ideas," said Ken Rait, director of the Heritage Forests Campaign working to secure permanent protection of wild areas in the National Forests, "but they need approval from Congress for over $1 billion in spending, which is not a foregone conclusion." "A more certain way to protect land is to spare the wilderness we already own, which practically everyone would agree is the most fiscally responsible thing to do," Rait said. "If President Clinton and Vice President Gore really want a 'lands legacy' as they say they do, they should permanently protect our last wild National Forest roadless areas over 1,000 acres, and manage these Heritage Forests according to science instead of politics as the President promised over a year ago." In the next two weeks, the U.S. Forest Service is expected to implement a temporary moratorium on the construction of new roads in some roadless areas. Rait noted that despite President Clinton's November 1997 promise for a roadless area protection policy, "the Forest Service is forging ahead with an 18-month study into how to build and pay for more roads in wilderness areas, not protect them for future generations. -0- |
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