Council Takes Stand Against Forest Fees
On June 15, opponents of the Recreation Fee Demonstration program or "Fee Demo," held a National Day of Action, organizing 30 protests in nine different states, including a mock coffin-nailing in New Hampshire, simulated "sidewalk demonstration fees" in San Francisco and a toilet paper drive in Colorado (to offset one expense supposedly covered by fees). Native Forest Council provided national media support and participated in Oregon demonstrations. Introduced as a three-year experiment, Fee Demo has been extended through 2004 by two additional riders. Today, fees are charged at 1,400 sites on national parks, forests and BLM lands, generating an estimated $180 million annually. At least four state governments have passed legislation to formally oppose Fee Demo, citing the fact that federal agencies already receive taxpayer dollars, but use most of it to subsidize mining, logging, grazing and drilling on public lands. The fees also hurt low-income families, promote destructive recreational activities and continue the commercialization of our public lands.

Bush Agency Withdraws Habitat Protections
The Bush administration withdrew key habitat protections for 19 endangered populations of Northwest salmon and steelhead this May, which could open areas to greater development. The ruling removes the species' "critical habitat" designation under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and affects 150 watersheds, rivers, bays and estuaries in four western states, including the Puget Sound and the Columbia and Snake Rivers.

Tracking Our Disappearing Forests
This June, Native Forest Council began an unprecedented research project to document the decline of our national forests. Drawing on resources from NASA and the University of Oregon, the Council is compiling aerial photographs of all our national forests. The photographs will demonstrate the impact of national forest logging and, where available, will show before-and-after comparisons of how our national forests once looked from above. Once the project is complete, the maps will be available in print, on the web and in larger formats for the press, teachers, researchers and conservation activists.

Owl Population: "Worst Case Scenario"
The spotted owl, a species that indicates forest health, is more threatened today than it was in the 1970s and '80s, according to a government biologist quoted in the Seattle Weekly. Populations have declined 50% in ten years, a rate the federal government called a "worst case scenario" just one decade ago.

Bush Opens Forests to Cutting
Thanks to the Bush administration's recent amendments to the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan (which left more than a million acres of old growth forest open to cutting), this summer marked a dramatic increase in logging on national forests in the Northwest. By limiting public input, restricting legal challenges and "streamlining" the Forest Service planning process, many of the plan's loopholes have been expanded, opening more native forests to the chainsaw.

Hermach Featured as Inspirational Speaker
Council President Tim Hermach traveled more than 3,000 miles to address the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project (SABP) in Asheville, North Carolina this June. The Biodiversity Project seeks permanent protection for Southern Appalachia's public lands and sustainable management of private lands. Hermach also traveled around the East Coast speaking with journalists, visiting with prominent Washington D.C. attorneys and strategizing with other environmental activists about how to protect and preserve our public lands.

S. Dakota Exempt from Enviro Regulations
In July, Senate majority leader Tom Daschle quietly inserted language into a defense spending bill that would exempt his home state of South Dakota's Black Hills National Forest from environmental regulations and lawsuits in order to allow logging to prevent forest fires. While there has been little opposition from "Big Green" environmental organizations (Daschle is a Sierra Club-backed Democrat), lawmakers in other high-risk states are voicing their outrage that their states don't have similar provisions. Both House and Senate Republicans plan to introduce legislation that extends logging and lawsuit exemptions to public lands in every other state "at risk of catastrophic wildfire."

Bush Fire Plan Opposite of What's Needed
As of our press date, both houses of Congress are debating wildfire legislation. President Bush has proposed opening ten million acres of federal land to logging and gutting the environmental review process as part of his "Forest Health Initiative." But increasing logging to prevent wildfire contradicts the historical record of the past century, according to a September 17 article in the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper investigated government records to reveal that past logging has not only failed to reduce wildfire, but actually increased them. "Partial cutting done historically typically aggravated the fire hazard and made things worse when the fire came along," C. Phillip Weatherspoon (an emeritus research forester with the Forest Service) told the Times.