Just before Christmas, the Bush administration issued deplorable new management rules for our national forests that put millions of acres of our public lands at risk.

Now the Forest Service wants to exempt forest management plans - the blueprints for how our National Forests are run - from public environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Exempting these plans from public scrutiny would be very dangerous for our forests - we can't let this happen!

Tuesday March 7, is the deadline to provide feedback on this dangerous proposal, so please click here to submit your comments now before it's too late!  Or if you're a registered user just hit "reply" and then hit "send" to send the message below on your behalf.

NEPA is a landmark environmental law that has protected our natural heritage for over thirty years. This law requires federal agencies to study and disclose the environmental effects of their actions and to include the public in their decision-making.

The Bush administration has worked to steadily chip away at this important law over the past four years. This latest attack on NEPA would greatly reduce information available to the public, scientists, and other agencies. It would make it much more difficult for the public to weigh in on or provide comments, concerns, objections, or alternatives to Forest Service proposals.

Well over 100 national forests are due for revised management plans by the end of this decade and therefore at risk. If we don't nip it in the bud now, the effects of this exemption could stretch across millions of acres of our forestlands.

Please don't wait. Click here to let the Forest Service know that you are opposed to this harmful proposal!

Once you've taken action, please forward this email to your friends, family and co-workers urging them to take action as well.

Thanks for your help!

Sincerely,

Katelyn Sabochik
Online Campaign Manager
info@saveourenvironment.org

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Dear Chief Bosworth,

I am writing to oppose the Forest Service's proposal to categorically exclude forest plans from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Forest Plans make significant decisions regarding where particular activities, such as road construction, logging, off-road vehicle use and mineral development can occur on our national forests. Forest planning is also intended to play a vital role in conserving wildlife, soil and water quality in our national forests.

Permitting forest plan amendments and revisions to be categorically excluded from NEPA would postpone any public examination of the potential impacts of logging, road building, and other environmentally harmful activities on the wildlife, recreation and conservation values in our national forests until after decisions about whether and where to allow such activities had already been made through the planning process. Subsequent analysis of individual timber sales, for example, would fail to assess the cumulative impacts of multiple projects -- past, current and future -- on the forest. To put it another way, we may never get to see the forest for the trees.

Utilizing a categorical exclusion in forest planning would undermine the quality of information the public receives. Specifically, NEPA's requirement that an adequate range of alternatives be developed and carefully considered not only provides the agency a chance to take a broader, outside-the-box view, but it also plays an important role in educating the public about what possible directions long-term planning on our national forests could take. To eliminate this requirement in forest planning would be to reduce agency planning decisions to an our-way-or-the-highway approach.

In addition, your proposal violates the spirit and the letter of the National Forest Management Act, which requires forest plans to comply with NEPA. Moreover, if implemented, it would violate the National Environmental Policy Act itself.

I urge you to abandon this ill-conceived proposal.

Thank you for considering my comments.

Sincerely,

[Your name and address]