USA: Message to Obama’s Main AG man!
President Elect Obama announced today the nomination of former
Governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack as the new Secretary of Agriculture.
Nearly 100 conservation organizations representing over 1.5 million
members and citizens from around the country call on Vilsack to
reverse damaging policies promulgated by the Bush administration and
set a new course for the U.S. Forest Service. “Most people don’t know
that 193 million acres of National Forest System lands are overseen by
the Department of Agriculture, said Randi Spivak, executive director
of American Lands Alliance. “Forest ecosystems are very different from
agriculture crops. These forests are our natural capital that provide
clean water, filter the air we breathe, provide habitat for wildlife
and fish, flood protection, sequester tremendous amounts of carbon and
offer world-class recreation opportunities.” The Forest Conservation
Community National Forest Priorities for the New
Administrationrecommends a set of high-priority national forest
conservation issues for early action beginning in the first 100 days
and lays out a vision for shifting the priority of federal land
management agencies to managing public lands for ecological
sustainability and developing green jobs to restore our public forests
and watersheds. “National Forest System lands and the Forest Service
often operate under conflicting policy mandates with timber, mining,
oil and gas development, motorized recreation and grazing allowed to
harm natural resources at the expense of both the environment and the
taxpayers,” continued Spivak. “We hope to see a new direction and
vision for the agency,” said Spivak. “We look to the new
administration to set a high bar for protecting and restoring our
nations’ forests and protecting wildlife. Our national forests should
be managed for biodiversity, clean water and air, carbon
sequestration, and appropriate recreation.” The hallmark of the Bush
administration has been political interference in science to pave the
way for extractive uses on public lands that puts numerous species at
risk, and cuts the public out of the decision-making process on
federal forests at the planning, project, and accountability levels.
“The nation cannot begin to implement proactive policies to protect
and restore public lands without first reversing the Bush
administration’s damaging environmental legacy,” Spivak added. “Those
actions and regulations dramatically reduced existing protections for
federal forests, watersheds and wildlife, public participation, and
scientific integrity.” The forest conservation community’s top three
recommendations include: Development of a comprehensive climate policy
for forests that shifts the management focus to ecological
sustainability and prohibits logging of large, mature, and old-growth
forests and trees on federal lands. Reinstating strong ecosystem
protections that reinstate the requirement that federal forest plans
maintain viable populations of species and allow the public
involvement, scrutiny and scientific accountability Restoring
protections for America’s roadless wild forests including on the
Tongass National Forest. These requests for early action fall mainly
under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service, an agency of the
Department of Agriculture.
americanlandsalliance@mail.democracyinaction.org
Click here to read the Forest Conservation Community National Forest
Priorities for the New Administration:
Posted via email from Deane’s posterous