From Republicans for Environmental Protection:This came the other day from REP America President, Martha Marks.

Fellow REPs,

I hate to interrupt your holiday festivities with unpleasant news, but
it's
the Bush administration that created the lousy timing, not me.

On December 23, following a well-established pattern of making
stealthy,
anti-environmental announcements when few are paying attention, the
administration
issued its new rules on logging in the Tongass National Forest, setting
a
terrible new precedent.

We've written in several recent Green Elephants...

a) how the Bush administration made much ado about its decision to
uphold the
popular roadless rule (which we REPs worked so hard to promote a couple
of
years back) but then issued a "small print" memo saying "except in the
Tongass
NF", and

b) how GOP Senate leaders allowed Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens to slip a
rider
into an Appropriations Bill making it virtually impossible for citizens
to
challenge road-building and logging plans in the Tongass, and

c) how the Bush administration gives in quickly and with little legal
resistence to anti-environmental lawsuits designed for that purpose by
states and
industries


Well, now we know the full, final logging plan for the Tongass, and it
stinks. This miserable ruling --and the calculated, cynical timing of
its release--
calls for considerable outrage on the part of all of us
conservation-minded
Republicans.

If you have time soon after the first of the year (when people come
back from
holiday trips and will be paying attention again), please...

Call your two senators and your congressman/woman to let them know how
you
feel about this. You can get to their offices through the Capitol
switchboard
(202-224-3121) or <>. (Please don't sent emails...
which are
mostly ignored.)

Call the White House comment line at 202-456-1111.

Call the Agriculture Dept. (which controls the US Forest Service) at
202-720-3631.

Best of all... write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper,
letting
other people know not only about the bad decision but also its timing.
(Your
elected officials will see that letter, too!) Mention that you're a
member of
Republicans for Environmental Protection... and that you're outraged!


Below is today's New York Times editorial on the subject, plus a press
release issued Dec. 23 by environmental groups who have been watching
this situation
develop. Both contain important information that you can use.

Thanks for paying attention to this message during the holidays. The
White
House and Congress are hoping you won't!

And please pass this message along to anybody who might be interested.

Martha

Martha Marks, Ph.D. — President
REP America (Republicans for Environmental Protection)


You can find out about REP by going here.