Alaska Wilderness League * Allegheny Defense Project
Alpine Lakes Protection Society * Appalachian Voices * Arise for Social Justice
Bark * Beaver Valley Preservation Alliance * California Native Plant Society Cascade Forest Conservancy * Cascadia Wildlands
Center for Biological Diversity * Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation
Cherokee Forest Voices * Christians For The Mountains
Climate Change Major Disaster Declaration Campaign
Colorado Native Plant Society * Conservation Colorado * Conservation Congress Conservation Northwest * Darby Creek Valley Association * Defenders of Wildlife Dolores River Boating Advocates * Earth Island Institute’s John Muir Project Earthjustice * Endangered Species Coalition * EnviroAce, LLC
Environmental Protection Information Center * Friends of Bell Smith Springs
Friends of Grays Harbor * Friends of Lake Monroe * Friends of Plumas Wilderness
Friends of the Bitterroot * Friends of the Inyo * Georgia ForestWatch
Grand Canyon Trust * Great Old Broads for Wilderness
Great Old Broads for Wilderness – Grand Junction Broadband
Great Old Broads for Wilderness – Rio Grande Valley Broadband
Great Old Broads for Wilderness – Select Roaring Fork Broadband
Greater Hells Canyon Council * Greenvironment, LLC * Heartwood
High Country Conservation Advocates * Hoosier Environmental Council
Idaho Conservation League * Indiana Forest Alliance
Izaak Walton League Bush Lake Chapter
Izaak Walton League Cass Count Chapter
Izaak Walton League W.J. McCabe Chapter * Kentucky Conservation Committee Kentucky Environmental Foundation * Kentucky Heartwood
Kentucky Resources Council, Inc. * Kettle Range Conservation Group
Klamath Forest Alliance * KS Wild * La Cueva Guardians
League of Conservation Voters * Los Padres ForestWatch
Mass Forest Rescue Campaign
Minnesota Division Izaak Walton League of America
Montana Wilderness Association * MountainTrue
National Parks Conservation Association * Natural Resources Defense Council Nature Abounds * Nature for All * New Mexico Sportsmen * New Mexico Wild New Mexico Wilderness Alliance * New Mexico Wildlife Federation
New River Alliance of Climbers * North Cascades Conservation Council
Northcoast Environmental Center * Ohio Environmental Council
Olympic Forest Coalition * Olympic Park Associates
Once a Forest * Oregon Wild *Partnership for Policy Integrity
Partnership for the National Trails System * PennFuture
Pennsylvania Council of Churches * Public Lands Media
RESTORE: The North Woods * Rocky Mountain Recreation Initiative
Rocky Mountain Wild * San Juan Citizens Alliance
San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council * Sangre de Cristo Audubon Society
Santa Fe Forest Coalition * Save Our Sky Blue Waters * Sequoia ForestKeeper Shawnee Forest Sentinels * Sheep Mountain Alliance
Sheltowee Trace Association * Sierra Club * Sierra Forest Legacy
Sky Island Alliance * Southern Environmental Law Center
Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturing Our Environment * Speak for the Trees Tennessee Wild * The Enviro Show * The Lands Council * The Wilderness Society Tulare County Audubon Society * Umpqua Watersheds, Inc.
Virginia Wilderness Committee * Water Stone Outdoors
West Virginia Environmental Council * West Virginia Highlands Conservancy West Virginia Rivers Coalition * West Virginia Wilderness Coalition
Western Environmental Law Center * White Mountain Conservation League WildEarth Guardians * Wilderness Workshop * Winter Wildlands Alliance
Zumbro Valley Audubon
May 11, 2018
Dear Representative:
On behalf of our millions of members and supporters we urge you to strongly oppose the extreme and divisively partisan federal forest provisions in the Forestry Title of the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018 (H.R. 2), also known as “the House Farm Bill.”
The legislation is replete with provisions that undermine bedrock environmental laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), and Roadless Area Conservation Rule (Roadless Rule). This bill consistently prioritizes the logging industry over all other forest stakeholders. It would cause irreparable harm to our federal forests, the millions of Americans who depend on them for clean drinking water, subsistence, recreation, and economic benefit, and the wildlife that call them home.
The federal forest provisions in the House Farm Bill also run contrary to the wildfire funding agreement reached only weeks ago in the Fiscal Year 2018 Omnibus. A deal was only reached after significant environmental concessions to pro-logging hardliners, even though a comprehensive wildfire funding solution had solid bi-partisan support in both chambers going into the omnibus negotiation.
Ignoring that compromise, H.R. 2 would allow logging, grazing, and many other activities on up to 6,000-acres — almost 10 square miles for each single project — without any NEPA review or disclosure of potential harms. The numerous new exemptions are double the size of the legislated NEPA exclusion just passed in the omnibus deal and they also eliminate the requirement, preserved in the omnibus agreement, to consider cumulative effects and “extraordinary circumstances” such as wilderness areas and endangered species.
This partisan bill also goes further than the omnibus deal on the ESA, allowing federal land management agencies to “self-consult” on whether their actions would harm threatened and endangered species even though such self-consultation has already been declared unlawful by the courts. Additionally, it attacks the landmark Roadless Rule, makes resource management and forest stewardship dependent on logging revenue, creating a perverse incentive, and jeopardizes fire-vulnerable communities by deprioritizing hazardous fuels reduction efforts in the Wildland Urban Interface.
The harmful federal forest proposals in this legislation solve no problem; they only add controversy to the House Farm Bill and weaken its chances of becoming law.
For all of these reasons we strongly urge you to OPPOSE the federal forest provisions in the House Farm Bill and any amendments that further undermine environmental safeguards on our federal forests.
Thank you,
Alaska Wilderness League
Allegheny Defense Project
Alpine Lakes Protection Society
Appalachian Voices
Arise for Social Justice
Bark
Beaver Valley Preservation Alliance
California Native Plant Society
Cascade Forest Conservancy
Cascadia Wildlands
Center for Biological Diversity
Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation
Cherokee Forest Voices
Christians For The Mountains
Climate Change Major Disaster Declaration Campaign
Colorado Native Plant Society
Conservation Colorado
Conservation Congress
Conservation Northwest
Darby Creek Valley Association
Defenders of Wildlife
Dolores River Boating Advocates
Earth Island Institute’s John Muir Project
Earthjustice
Endangered Species Coalition
EnviroAce, LLC
Environmental Protection Information Center
Friends of Bell Smith Springs
Friends of Grays Harbor
Friends of Lake Monroe
Friends of Plumas Wilderness
Friends of the Bitterroot
Friends of the Inyo
Georgia ForestWatch
Grand Canyon Trust
Great Old Broads for Wilderness
Great Old Broads for Wilderness – Grand Junction Broadband
Great Old Broads for Wilderness – Rio Grande Valley Broadband
Great Old Broads for Wilderness – Select Roaring Fork Broadband
Greater Hells Canyon Council
Greenvironment, LLC
Heartwood
High Country Conservation Advocates
Hoosier Environmental Council
Idaho Conservation League
Indiana Forest Alliance
Izaak Walton League Bush Lake Chapter
Izaak Walton League Cass Count Chapter
Izaak Walton League W.J. McCabe Chapter
Kentucky Conservation Committee
Kentucky Environmental Foundation
Kentucky Heartwood
Kentucky Resources Council, Inc.
Kettle Range Conservation Group
Klamath Forest Alliance
KS Wild
La Cueva Guardians
League of Conservation Voters
Los Padres ForestWatch
Mass Forest Rescue Campaign
Minnesota Division Izaak Walton League of America
Montana Wilderness Association
MountainTrue
National Parks Conservation Association
Natural Resources Defense Council
Nature Abounds
Nature for All
New Mexico Sportsmen
New Mexico Wild
New Mexico Wilderness Alliance
New Mexico Wildlife Federation
New River Alliance of Climbers
North Cascades Conservation Council
Northcoast Environmental Center
Ohio Environmental Council
Olympic Forest Coalition
Olympic Park Associates
Once a Forest
Oregon Wild
Partnership for Policy Integrity
Partnership for the National Trails System
PennFuture
Pennsylvania Council of Churches
Public Lands Media
RESTORE: The North Woods
Rocky Mountain Recreation Initiative
Rocky Mountain Wild
San Juan Citizens Alliance
San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council
Sangre de Cristo Audubon Society
Santa Fe Forest Coalition
Save Our Sky Blue Waters
Sequoia ForestKeeper
Shawnee Forest Sentinels
Sheep Mountain Alliance
Sheltowee Trace Association
Sierra Club
Sierra Forest Legacy
Sky Island Alliance
Southern Environmental Law Center
Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturing Our Environment
Speak for the Trees
Tennessee Wild
The Enviro Show
The Lands Council
The Wilderness Society
Tulare County Audubon Society
Umpqua Watersheds, Inc.
Virginia Wilderness Committee
Water Stone Outdoors
West Virginia Environmental Council
West Virginia Highlands Conservancy
West Virginia Rivers Coalition
West Virginia Wilderness Coalition
Western Environmental Law Center
White Mountain Conservation League
WildEarth Guardians
Wilderness Workshop
Winter Wildlands Alliance
Zumbro Valley Audubon