Washington, D.C.–(ENEWSPF)–February 6, 2014. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee today will hold a hearing on the Oregon and California Land Grant Act of 2013 (S. 1784) and the National Forest Jobs and Management Act of 2014 (S. 1966). Both bills include extreme measures to promote or mandate logging, undermining bedrock environmental safeguards, departing from science-based management, and jeopardizing the future of our forests and the communities that depend on them. Similar national legislation proposed in the House of Representatives last September was met with a strong veto threat from the Obama administration.
In response Sierra Club forest representative Ani Kame’enui issued the following statement:
“The rehashed ideas in these bills fail to recognize that the economy has changed over the past 20 years. Outdoor recreation and tourism have far outpaced logging as a major source of jobs and economic revenue across the country. Relinking local economies to resource extraction is a thing of the past.
“Weakening environmental safeguards to promote clearcutting and other irresponsible logging threatens not only our forests, but also clean drinking water, recreation, the long-term economic well-being of counties that depend on them, and more. Our nation’s forests are national treasures that provide a wealth of benefits to all Americans. They deserve to be protected.”
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 2.1 million members and supporters nationwide. In addition to creating opportunities for people of all ages, levels and locations to have meaningful outdoor experiences, the Sierra Club works to safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and litigation. For more information, visit http://www.sierraclub.org.
Source: sierraclub.org
