BIODIVERSITY BROADCAST
Email Newsletter for September, 2002
Contents:
1. Citizen Pressure Saves Two Wyoming Wild Places
2. Celebration for a WILD Medicine Bow - September 21
3. President Bush and Anti-Environmental Law Makers Seek to Undermine One of Our Nation’s Most Important Environmental Laws

Citizen Pressure Saves Two Wyoming Wild Places
Rainbow Valley Win - There is no scientific evidence to support the idea that commercial logging operations inside our last wild forests can help protect people’s lives and property. Nevertheless, the Forest Service’s Rainbow Valley project, created to reduce the fire risk faced by local communities near the Snowy Range, initially included a commercial logging project inside the Libby Flats and Middle Fork Roadless Areas.

After receiving a great many letters from concerned people demanding these roadless forests be protected, the Forest Service scaled down its project and agreed to keep chainsaws and heavy machinery out for the time being.

Brider-Teton Roadless Area Stays Roadless - At the request of anti-environmental Utah Congressman James Hansen, the Bridger-Teton National Forest proposed a road construction project inside the large and wild Commissary Ridge Roadless Area, which is home to rare and imperiled animals such as lynx and bonneville cutthroat trout. In response, people sent letters and emails in overwhelming support for conservation. The Forest Service has just decided to keep new roads out of Commissary Ridge.

If you sent letters regarding either of these projects, congratulations and thank you! It is only by your involvement that Wyoming’s wild places can be saved.

Celebration for a WILD Medicine Bow - September 21
To celebrate the natural beauty of the Medicine Bow, and to let people know how they can get involved to protect it, the Keep the ‘Bow WILD Coalition is hosting a free community celebration at the Band Shell in Laramie’s Washington Park. Please join us. The Celebration will feature plenty of amazing music, informational booths set up throughout the day, games, children’s activities brought to you by the Wyoming Children’s Museum and Nature Center, and door prizes donated by Rainbow Photography, Sweet Melissa’s, and Cross-Country Connection.

Here’s a rundown of the events:
1:00 - Laramie’s incredible bluegrass band - Trouble in the Yard
2:30 - The down and dirty Den Dogs
4:30 - Citizens’ Environmental Law Workshop
5:30 - The "get yourself moving" salsa sounds of Salsateca
7:30 - Keep the Medicine Bow WILD slideshow

President Bush and Anti-Environmental Lawmakers Seeks to Undermine One of Nation’s Most Important Environmental Laws
The National Environmental Policy Act (or NEPA) was signed into law by Republican President Richard Nixon in 1970 and has since become one of our nation’s foremost environmental laws. It is the means through which everyday citizens like you and I can get involved to protect the Medicine Bow National Forest and other public lands.

In a nutshell, this law ensures that Federal Agencies:

  • involve and consult the public before taking actions, such as a timber sale or road building project, that may harm the environment,
  • fully understand how the environment would be impacted before beginning major projects on Federal lands,
  • take measures to protect the environment, and
  • are in compliance with other federal laws, such as the Endangered Species Act.

Because NEPA is such an important and effective law, President Bush and anti-environmental lawmakers across the country would like to "streamline" (or, more accurately, gut) the measure in the guise of forest fire prevention. Legislation has recently been released in both the U.S. House and Senate that would open the doors for commercial logging inside old-growth and roadless forests while shutting the doors to public participation. Please keep your eyes and ears open as the debate over this fundamental law unfolds in Congress. And please contact your U.S. Congressional representatives and tell them to keep their hands off NEPA.

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Biodiversity Conservation Alliance
P.O. Box 1512, Laramie, WY 82073
(307) 742-7978 - maggie@voiceforthewild.org