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Representatives Leach and Slaughter Propose Ban on Logging in National Forests: Legislation offers a comprehensive solution to 1

Date
July 26, 2005
Contact
Naomi Zeff Congressman Leach
In This Release
Public Lands  

Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Representatives Leach and Slaughter Propose Ban on Logging in National Forests: Legislation offers a comprehensive solution to 1

“The US government is the only property owner I know which in effect pays private parties to deplete its resources.”
Contact: Naomi Zeff Congressman Leach

Washingtion DC – Representatives Jim Leach (R-IA) and Louise Slaughter (D-NY) introduced the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act today to ban commercial logging in National Forests. This comprehensive legislative solution has received the support over 200 scientists, over 300 grassroots forest protection groups, and scores of US Congresspeople from across the country.

“Protecting American’s national heritage is a conservation imperative,” Congressman Leach noted. “It should also be a conservative one. Indeed it is time to put ‘conservation back’ into ‘conservativism.’ For the essence of conservatism should not only be concern for conserving traditional family and social values but also our land, our air and our water.”

“The US government is the only property owner I know which in effect pays private parties to deplete its resources,” Leach concluded. “It is time to manage better our fiscal as well as our ecological resources.”

“This Act would immediately redirect the taxpayer money being lavished on the timber industry towards genuine fire risk reduction and scientific restoration of our National Forests,” Said Bryan Bird, Forest Program Coordinator for WildEarth Guardians. “The National Forest Protection and Restoration Act would guarantee jobs and income to rural communities through restoration work that will last a lifetime.”

“The Forest Service and the Bush Administration cannot be trusted to do the right thing when it comes to our national forests,” said Susan Curry, NFPA Executive Director. “The National Forest Protection and Restoration Act will end this debate once and for all by taking our forests out of the timber business and putting them into the public trust, where they belong.”

This bill would:- End the wasteful federal timber sales program, which costs the taxpayer more than $1 billion annually but provides less than 2 percent of our annual consumption of wood-based products;- Redirect these subsidies to the restoration of forests, streams and wildlife habitat damaged by destructive logging practices;- Fund retraining for displaced timber workers and help affected communities diversify and strengthen their economies;- Fund research into alternative materials to wood-based products.

For more information on the campaign to end commercial logging in US National Forests, check out www.forestadvocate.org

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“Protecting American’s national heritage is a conservation imperative,” Congressman Leach noted. “It should also be a conservative one. Indeed it is time to put ‘conservation back’ into ‘conservativism.’ For the essence of conservatism should not only be concern for conserving traditional family and social values but also our land, our air and our water.”