Stop the Gorton-Hatfield rider

clearcutting -->clearcutting
  • What's the Gorton-Hatfield rider?
  • Why should it be stopped?
  • More info?
  • What you can do?

    What is the Gorton-Hatfield rider

    DATE: 4-7-95 RE: Our National Forests under Attack *** Help Save Our National Forests! *** Last night, the Senate voted 99 to 0 to pass the most far reaching assault on our National Forests in at least 25 years. H.R. 1158 (called the "rescissions" bill because it cuts or rescinds funding for existing programs) would waive *all* federal laws so that timber companies can cut the maximum amount of timber from our National Forests. The President has said he would sign the Senate version of this bill. We have got to get the word out to the public and to the White House that this measure is unacceptable! The House and Senate will not meet to iron out the differences in their bills until early May, so we have a few weeks to turn up the heat. More info.

    The Fallacy

    The following is from: NY Times "There's No Such Thing as a Forest Health Crisis", 5/8/95. A18.

    To the Editor: Re the excellent April 30 Op-Ed article by Mary Christina Olmsted and Chad Hanson opposing the Gorton-Hatfield "timber salvage" rider in a Senate appropriations bill: Salvage logging is based on the completely false premise that there is a "forest health crisis" caused by insects, disease and fire, and the solution is to cut down the forests to save them. The so-called crisis is a hoax foisted by the timber industry on the public, the press and Congress through constant repetition.

    According to Arthur Partridge, professor of forest disease and insect problems at the University of Idaho, "forest disease and insect activity is at the lowest level in 28 years." Forest Service findings confirm there is no crisis (Forest Resources of the U.S., 1992" Department of Agriculture, July 1994).

    In a letter to President Clinton, five leading forest and steam scientists said: "We know of no scienctific reason to engage in salvage logging or road building burned areas , and we know of many sound reasons not to. Logging produces no know benefits to the streams, and entails very serious risks."

    What Can You Do?

    Write the President and tell him to veto this legislation: President Bush president@whitehouse.gov

    Also, please call White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta's office at 202/456-6797. Ask that the White House work to remove the "logging without laws" provisions from H.R. 1158 and that they veto the bill if it remains in there. Both the House and Senate versions of this bill overturn all our environmental laws and allow major destruction of our National Forests. The President *must* get involved.