Wilderness & Land Preservation News
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| 7/27/2004 | |
| SEATTLE—Sportsmen, religious leaders, concerned Republicans, and environmentalists joined forces today to launch a drive to collect comments from one million Americans opposing the Bush administration's proposal to repeal protections for 58.5 million acres of pristine national forests. | |
| 7/14/2004 | |
| SEATTLE—A new report released today by the Washington Public Interest Research Group (WashPIRG) shows that there are 3,800 abandoned metal mines in Washington State, most of which have never been assessed for their impacts on the environment. The report, entitled "Washington Undermined," warns of overlooked and ongoing pollution of the state's watersheds from heavy metals leaching from these mines. WashPIRG asserts that too little is being done to identify contaminated mines and protect the public health. | |
| 7/12/2004 | |
| The Bush administration announced today its proposal to repeal the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which was enacted in January 2001 to protect 58.5 million acres of pristine national forests from most logging and road-building – including approximately 2 million acres in Washington State. The administration instead would require governors to petition for protections for national forests in their states, although there is no guarantee that protection would be granted. | |
| 6/16/2004 | |
| We applaud the U.S. House of Representatives for voting to pass the Chabot (R-OH) - Andrews (D-NJ) amendment to the FY2005 Interior Appropriations bill to stop taxpayer subsidies for construction of new logging roads in the Tongass National Forest. The Tongass is America's largest national forest and the biggest intact temperate rainforest left in the world. In the past 20 years, the Forest Service has lost more than $750 million of taxpayer money by building roads to allow private companies to log in the Tongass. | |
| 5/5/2004 | |
| WASHINGTON, DC—Members of Congress, including Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Representative Jay Inslee (D-WA01), joined environmental groups in Washington, D.C., today to call on the Bush administration to protect roadless areas in our national forests. | |
| 4/1/2004 | |
| Seattle Wash.—A report released today by Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) details the extensive disrepair of the USDA National Forest road system. The report comes just weeks before the Bush administration is set to change the Roadless Area Conservation Rule and shows that the road maintenance and capital improvement backlog has reached a record $10 billion. Washington, California, Alaska, Montana, Oregon, Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah account for over $7 billion of the $10 billion backlog. | |
| 12/21/2005 | |
| Today's vote to strike Arctic Refuge drilling language from the Department of Defense appropriation bill is a huge win for America's Arctic and for the American public. Americans strongly oppose drilling in the Arctic Refuge, and this week they have made their voices heard and beaten back perhaps the most cynical attempt yet to drill in one of America¹s last wild places. | |
| 11/15/2004 | |
| SEATTLE—On the final day of the public comment period on the Bush administration’s controversial proposal to repeal the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a local coalition of sportsmen, religious leaders, businesses, recreational users and conservationists announced that a record-breaking 1.5 million Americans nationally and more than 60,000 in Washington State alone have spoken out against weakening protections for 58.5 million acres of roadless areas in national forests. This brings the total number of comments in support of the 2001 Roadless Rule, which was enacted in January 2001, to more than four million nationally and more than 140,000 from Washington over the last three years. In addition, during the comment period, more than 140 members of Congress, 130 scientists, and 110 economists spoke out in opposition to the proposal to repeal the rule. | |
| 10/10/2003 | |
| Seattle—Local environmentalists decried a new opinion issued today by Interior Secretary Gale Norton that will permit unlimited toxic waste dumping by mining companies, such as Kinross Gold Corporation, which yesterday announced that it sought to acquire the right to mine gold from the old Crown Jewel site on Buckhorn Mountain in the Okanogan National Forest. | |
| 09/27/2007 | |
| Seattle, WA – Washington is home to several of the nation’s most beautiful and important national forests. These forests provides the state’s residents with some of the highest quality recreation areas and our state’s economy with an important source of revenue. Unfortunately, logging in Washington’s national forests jeopardizes $2.7 billion per year in Washington business from transportation, lodging, equipment, and licenses for activities such as fishing, hunting, and wildlife watching, according to a new report released today by Environment Washington. | |
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