Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: Tell the President to leave the Roadless Rule intact!

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

Thank you for your promise to be a champion for California's natural environment. Now, as a California citizen who cares about protecting our most pristine national forests from destruction, I am urging you to weigh in with President Bush on an important federal environmental issue.

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a widely popular rule to protect 58.5 million acres of pristine national forests--including 4.4 million acres here in California--from most logging and road-building, was finalized by the US Forest Service in January 2001 after decades of scientific study, 600 public hearings, and a record 1.6 million comments in support of the rule. In California, more than 97% of the public comments submitted were in support of the rule.

The Bush administration exempted the Tongass National Forest in Alaska from the Roadless Rule in late December 2003, allowing new road-building and logging to occur in America's largest national forest. Now the Bush Administration wants to roll back all of the forest protections for the lower 48 states in the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

The Roadless Rule protects 4.416 million acres, or 21 percent, of California's national forests. These areas are some of the most pristine forests we have left in the state, and provide essential habitat for endangered, threatened, and imperiled species as well as unparalleled recreational opportunities and water quality benefits. Experts have found that protecting roadless areas from logging is also an important way to reduce fire risk in our national forests. These areas have some of the largest, most fire-resistant trees in the forests and less of the brushy undergrowth that presents a true fire hazard. The Forest Service has found that the number of large fires is dramatically higher in areas that are already roaded than in inventoried roadless areas. In addition, protecting these areas will not cause significant financial harm to the logging industry: the Forest Service has determined that in California, protecting these areas will result in less than a 1% reduction of current national forest harvest levels.

I strongly urge you to write a letter and make an accompanying public statement to President Bush, urging the President to leave the roadless rule intact in the Lower 48 and reinstate the roadless rule in the Tongass. I further urge you to publicly state that even if the President allows governors to exempt their states from the Roadless Rule, you will not ask for a California exemption from roadless protections.

Millions of concerned citizens in California and across the nation are depending on your leadership to protect our forests. I will be closely monitoring your actions on this important issue.

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