Consequently, the slaughter of the last of America's ancient forests and the decimation of the last of America's forested roadless areas proceeds at an ever-increasing pace. Under cover of the lawless logging rider, timber sales comprising green, healthy trees are being retagged as salvage just so the Forest Service can waive all environmental laws and ignore citizen concerns. The few, small and scattered shreds of ancient forest still standing in this country are left without any protection now that cutting is entirely immune from citizen appeals, court reviews, environmental laws and scientific requirements. On April 24th, the 9th U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the timber industry and released 60 ancient forest timber sales which together total over 246 million board feet. All of these sales had previously been stopped for a variety of environmental reasons. These sales are added on to the 410 million board feet which had already been released by the "clearcut rider". None of these sales need comply with any of the usual regulations which serve to protect fisheries, clean water, wildlife, endangered species or forest ecosystems.
A host of bad environmental riders had been attached to the Spending Agreement. Although Clinton had promised to veto the bill if any of the riders remained attached, he caved in and accepted a number of them. Along with the "Logging Without Laws" rider, a rider that suspends the ESA at Mt. Graham, and riders that affect energy efficiency, radon exposure and the Superfund program were included in the bill's final form. Also included in the final form of the bill were riders affecting the Tongass National Forest, the ESA Moratorium and the Mojave Desert Preserve. The President has been granted "special authority" to waive implementation of these measures (which certainly does not guarantee that he will waive implementation).
In spite of his acceptance of the riders in the final version of the Spending Agreement, some environmentalists insist that Clinton should continue to receive pressure to repeal the lawless logging rider. In addition, they also ask that you pressure your Representatives and Senators to support the Furse bill in the House and the Bradley bill in the Senate which would repeal the rider. Call the President at 202-456-1111 (9 to 5 EST), or call Chief of Staff Panetta's Comment Line at 202-456-6797. The White House fax number is 202-456-2883. You can send e-mail to president@whitehouse.gov. Written messages can be mailed to The White House, Washington, DC 20500.
However, other environmentalists are turning to direct action and nonviolent civil disobedience as the best means to confront the lawless logging rider. Joe Keating of Witness Against Lawless Logging, for example, says, "With all legal barriers to logging now gone, people will take the only remaining action possible to protest this outrage." Keating was referring to a protest action planned for Sunday, April 28th, on the Native American sacred mountain of Enola Hill where logging has begun. He goes on to say, "In a long series of outrages, this represents a particularly outrageous example of why the timber rider must be repealed immediately. The rider is not only stripping us of our legal rights and our ancient forests - it is desecrating the heart and soul of a Native sacred place." The Enola Hill action is only one of a growing number of protests which have sprung up around the country during the nine months since Clinton signed the lawless logging rider into law.
With the failure to repeal the rider as part of the 1996 Spending Agreement, the number of protest actions is bound to rapidly increase. Mendocino County, for example, which has so far been spared cutting due to the rider, is facing a host of imminent timber sales in the Mendocino National Forest (MNF). Logging protests, especially to protect the remaining shards of old growth, will almost surely spring up if cutting begins on these sales. The California Wilderness Coalition reports that the Forest Service is planning to begin its assault on the MNF by cutting 4 million board feet on the Middle Fork of the Eel River in the Blands/Steel Timber Sale. The Middle Fork Eel is a "key watershed" and hosts the largest remaining population of summer-run steelhead in California. This sale targets some of the last unprotected old-growth remaining in the MNF and threatens the habitat for the summer-run steelhead. The Forest Service, in the guise of promoting forest health, justifies cutting the old-growth because the trees are "overmature". With Clinton's failure to repeal the logging rider, activists are becoming increasingly alarmed as the cutting date for this sale approaches.
In addition, protesters are becoming increasingly aware that arguments based on ignored environmental laws or decimated forest ecosystems are presently falling on deaf ears. However, since this is an election year, activists are aware that the Administration may be increasingly sensitive to the prospect of photographs of the President being despoiled on national television during media coverage of logging protests. Armed with this knowledge, images of smiling Willy may be as imperiled as our national forest ecosystems as long as the lawless logging rider remains in effect.
For information on protests as they develop on the Mendocino National Forest, stay in touch with the MEC. Our thanks to the Western Ancient Forest Campaign (WAFC), 202-789-2844 x291, for supplying some of the information in this report.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1997
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited