| WASHINGTON - June 20 -
The Blue Ribbon Coalition, one of the most active opponents of the
Forest Service’s efforts to preserve large, intact areas in national
forests, is closely tied to the timber, mining, and oil and gas
industry, according to a report released today by U.S. PIRG.
The Pocatello,
Idaho based Coalition has actively opposed any proposal to protect
roadless areas in national forests even if such a proposal would
further the Coalition’s stated recreational interests. While the
group’s mission statement values land stewardship and responsible
use, the organization receives funding from 355 corporations
including the American Forest and Paper Association, Exxon, and
Sierra Forest Products.
"Far from being
a grassroots organization simply advancing an agenda of access to
public lands for the public, the Blue Ribbon Coalition is working
hand-in-hand with industry to keep our national forests open to
chainsaws, bulldozers and oil rigs," said U.S. PIRG Forest Campaign
Coordinator Aaron Viles.
The U.S. PIRG
report, "The Blue Ribbon Coalition: Protector of Recreation or
Industry?" was released as a battle is waged over how the
last third, or 60 million acres, of untouched, pristine wilderness
in national forests will be managed. In May, the U.S. Forest Service
released a draft proposal on managing these wild forests, otherwise
known as roadless areas, and is soliciting public comment and
holding more than 400 public hearings around the country, including
a hearing in Arlington, VA on June 26.
Findings of the
report include:
- The Blue
Ribbon Coalition receives financial support from numerous
timber, oil and gas, and mining companies including Boise
Cascade Corp., Exxon, Chevron, and the American Forest and Paper
Association.
- Companies
funding the Blue Ribbon Coalition are also involved in intensive
lobbying efforts in Washington, DC to advance their
anti-environmental agenda, including the demise
of the proposed policy to protect roadless areas in our national
forests. These companies have spent $46,115,748 lobbying
Congress the Forest Service and other federal agencies in during
the period the Administration has been working on a roadless
area proposal (1997 — 1999), and have had 146 lobbyists on
average working on their behalf during this
period.
- The
political action committees (PACs) of companies funding the Blue
Ribbon Coalition are also actively funding candidates, having
contributed $ 1,833,241 to candidates -- $1,767,416 to current
members of Congress and $65,825 to presidential candidates
Governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore in the last
three and half years (1997 — May, 2000). Top recipients in the
House include: (1) Helen Chenoweth-Hage ($42,242); (2) Michael
Simpson ($33,500); and (3) Don Young ($33,227). In the Senate
the top three recipients are: (1) Michael Crapo ($48,950); (2)
George Voinovich ($34,675); and (3) Ben Nighthorse Campbell
($28,500).
- The Blue
Ribbon Coalition repeats and disseminates the anti-environmental
rhetoric of their extractive industry supporters, including
calling for increased logging in national forests, even if the
statements are incompatible with the stated recreational values
of the Coalition. The Coalition has mischaracterized federal
land management policies, calling the roadless initiative a
"totalitarian lock-up of our public lands." The roadless
initiative instead seeks to create a publicly supported policy
that would preserve clean water sources, wildlife habitat, and
recreation opportunities in our last wild national
forests.
"The timber,
mining, and oil and gas industries are using the Blue Ribbon
Coalition as a front group to advance their agenda to keep as much
of our public lands open to logging, mining, and oil and gas
exploration — uses hardly compatible with recreational interests,
" said Viles.
The current
draft roadless area proposal prohibits new roads from being built
in roadless areas in national forests, including 109,000 acres in
Virginia’s forests, but, contrary to the rhetoric of the Blue
Ribbon Coalition, does not exclude off-road vehicle use from
roadless areas.
U.S. PIRG was
critical of the current proposal’s failure to ban logging, mining
or other destructive uses from roadless areas and the exemption of
the nation’s largest national forest, Alaska’s Tongass National
Forest, from the proposed policy. "The timber, mining, and oil and
gas industries have been successful so far in keeping roadless
areas open for more development," said Viles. "In order to truly
protect the last of our wild forests, the Forest Service must
issue a final policy that bans not just road building, but also
logging, mining and other destructive uses in all national
forests, including the Tongass."
"The
Administration must base its final decisions on science and what
the public wants and not on the smokescreens and influence
generated by Blue Ribbon Coalition and its corporate backers,"
concluded Viles.
The U.S.
Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) is a non-profit,
non-partisan public interest advocacy group with citizen members
across the country.
For more
information, send e-mail to uspirg@pirg.org or visit the PIRG web
site http://www.wildforest.com/.
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