Whether its water, wildlife, or wildlands, roads have been identified as the major impact on the forest environment. Many national forest roads were built during the frenzied decades of the logging boom and were simply abandoned.
The Forest Service currently has around 375,000 miles of known system roads – enough to travel around the earth 15 times. Many of these roads are unneeded, causing tremendous environmental damage, and should be reclaimed and reforested.
On behalf of The Wilderness Society I am writing to express our views on H.R. 2834, the “Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage and Opportunities Act”, and request that two provisions in it – Sections 4(e) and 4(c)(1)(B) – be removed from it during the House Natural Resources Committee’s consideration of the measure at its mark-up on Thursday.
Statement of David Alberswerth, Senior Policy Advisor, The Wilderness Society Before the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands Regarding H.R. 2852, the “Action Plan for Public Lands and Education Act of 2011” September 22, 2011
Great Outdoors America week or GO America Week (September 19th through 22nd in Washington, DC) is a historic gathering of adults and children — of all ages and from every walk of life — to let leaders know how much we care about America’s Great Outdoors.
In preparation, several pieces of literature were delivered to Congress to inform Congressional staff and members about GO America Week.
September 9
1) Where you are
The Table Mountain Roadless Area inside New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest would be logged — and in some locations clear-cut — under the U.S. Forest Service’s proposed “Northeast Swift” timber project.
The land is visible to the north from the famous Kancamagus Scenic Highway.
This is the eighth timber project proposed in the forest’s roadless areas since 2005, and we have submitted comments outlining our strong opposition.
A coalition of over 100 local and national groups sent a letter to members of the House of Representatives asking them to oppose H.R. 1581, the Wilderness and Roadless Release Act.
If passed, the legislation would roll back existing protections and place at risk tens of millions more acres of wilderness-quality but unprotected National Forest and BLM public lands. It also prevents Congress or future administrations from using a national policy to protect these lands in the future.
The Wilderness Society has produced the most comprehensive set of comments on the Forest Service’s proposed rule on National Forest System planning. Our comments identify many ways in which the rule should be improved to protect and restore wildlife habitat, watersheds, recreational opportunities, wilderness, and other important environmental and economic values of the National Forests and Grasslands.
Over the past two years of the Obama Administration, the Interior Department has implemented new policy and land management guidance, managed an oil spill disaster, and kicked off an effort to increase clean energy development on our public lands. We’ve also seated new members in the 112th Congress. All of this has stirred new conversations in the media and on Capitol Hill. The Wilderness Society has been leading the charge to defend our public lands and strengthen protections for threatened places.
