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America's Heritage Forests are at risk. America's Heritage Forests comprise just one-third of all the land managed by the U.S. Forest Service and are not permanently protected from logging, road building, and mining. These scenic, unprotected wilderness areas provide unmatched opportunities for camping, hiking and other recreational pursuits, valuable habitat for fish and wildlife, and abundant supplies of clean drinking water. The Clinton Administration must implement a policy to permanently protect America's Heritage Forests, consisting of all remaining roadless areas 1,000 acres and larger, from logging, road construction, mining and other damaging activities. We have a responsibility to future generations. We must permanently protect our scenic Heritage Forests as wilderness. Once they're gone, they're gone forever.

Talking Points

1. President Clinton and Vice-President Gore have an historic opportunity to protect these special places as a legacy for our children. They must ensure that the Forest Service uses science, not politics to develop the final policy. They must weigh in to make certain the final policy being developed by the Forest Service over the next 18 months will permanently protect all roadless areas of 1,000 acres or more from all destructive activities.
2. Unfortunately, the new Forest Service temporary moratorium is full of political loopholes that will leave tens of millions of acres of America's scenic wilderness wide open to logging, road building and mining. The loopholes must be closed and the moratorium made permanent.
3. The real test will come when the administration completes its final policy. Right now, the Forest Service appears headed in the wrong direction. If the final policy leads to nothing more than a new way to build roads in our last unspoiled forests instead of permanent protection of our remaining Heritage Forests, it will be a dismal failure.
4. Americans care deeply about protecting our scenic Heritage Forests. We are on the verge of forever losing our scenic, unprotected forest wilderness to irresponsible development. President Clinton has said that these areas should be managed by science, not politics and he is right.

Supporting Arguments and Facts:

Less than one-third of the National Forest System, about 60 million acres, remains wild and unprotected. These are America's Heritage Forests. They provide outstanding recreational opportunities, some of our most important fish and wildlife habitat, and are the sources of our cleanest drinking water.

The Forest Service has already received overwhelming public comments supporting the protection of our Heritage Forests (more than 95% of the 70,000 comments stemming from the January announcement supported a strong policy to protect all roadless areas 1000 acres and larger).

Vice President Gore received a letter on November 18 from 460 conservation organizations, 260 scientists and more than 40 religious spokespersons supporting protection of America's Heritage Forests.

Scientists have also sent a clear message to the Clinton-Gore Administration about the necessity to protect all remaining roadless areas (169 scientists wrote to President Clinton last December asking for protection of all remaining roadless areas).

Vice-President Gore called the Administration's support of the "Salvage Rider," a budget maneuver that suspended environmental laws on logging for over a year, their biggest political mistake. This Administration's failure to protect all 60 million acres of Heritage Forests would be another huge mistake.

Regional responses:

for activists in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and other exempted regions
The interim moratorium is specially damaging to the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and other forests that are exempted from the roadbuilding moratorium. The interim moratorium creates the presumption that existing forest plans in these regions will adequately protect our Heritage Forests, when in fact these plans will be their death knell. The interim moratorium is a lost opportunity to fix these broken plans. Even the areas that are covered by the moratorium are still open to helicopter logging operations, mining and other destructive activities.

for activists in southern Appalachians and northern Rockies
The temporary moratorium, while it gives our region a brief reprieve, now must be expanded to all of America's Heritage Forests and made permanent for others. The fact that the southern Appalachians and northern Rockies get a brief reprieve through this moratorium does not address our need for a national policy that would protect all of America's Heritage Forests.