From Environment New York:
We are moving closer to restoring long overdue protections for America’s most spectacular and beloved national forests.
Yet while George Bush is no longer president, his policies and his people still threaten our last wild forests.
As President Obama moves to put his own team in place at the Forest Service, Bush-era appointees are racing to let their friends in the timber, mining and coal industries into at least 90,000 acres of roadless forests in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Colorado.1, 2
Consider Alaska’s Tongass. At 17 million acres, it is by far our largest national forest and the world’s largest temperate rainforest. There’s simply no place like it on Earth.3
We have perhaps a few months to stop miles of roads from being clear-cut into some of the most pristine enclaves within the Tongass, including nearly one-third of the amazing forest that still stands on Kupreanof Island.
Who can stop these attacks?
You, me and Tom Vilsack, the man that President Obama put in charge of the Department of Agriculture, which, strangely enough, oversees the Forest Service.
I’m working to arrange a meeting with Secretary Vilsack to personally urge him to declare our roadless forests off-limits to industry and to restore the Clinton-era Roadless Rule. With a few strokes of his pen, Secretary Vilsack has the power to make it happen. I’ll have more power to persuade him if I have thousands of people like you standing with me.
Tell Secretary Vilsack to protect and preserve America’s last wild forests. And, please, forward our appeal to your friends, neighbors and others. We need thousands of Americans to stand up for our last wild forests.
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