<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="" style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none"><font color="#000000" face="Open Sans, Verdana, Geneva, DejaVu Sans, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14px;font-weight:400;line-height:20px">Note: The list of scientists opposing these public lands logging bills include 7 from the University Of Montana system. You can TAKE ACTION at the end of this email. Make sure both Senator Tester and Senator Daines know that you oppose these public lands logging bills. This is especially important since both Tester and Daines have been trying to dramatically </span><span style="font-size:14px;font-weight:normal;line-height:20px">increase</span><span style="font-size:14px;font-weight:400;line-height:20px"> public lands logging through various forms of political mandates, in some cases with the help of some environmental and conservation groups in Montana, such as Montana Wilderness Association, Montana Trout Unlimited, National Wildlife Federation, Yaak Valley Forest Council and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.</span></font></h1><div><font color="#000000" face="Open Sans, Verdana, Geneva, DejaVu Sans, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14px;font-weight:400;line-height:20px"><br></span></font></div><div><font color="#000000" face="Open Sans, Verdana, Geneva, DejaVu Sans, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14px;font-weight:400;line-height:20px">Thanks,</span></font></div><div><font color="#000000" face="Open Sans, Verdana, Geneva, DejaVu Sans, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14px;font-weight:400;line-height:20px">Matthew Koehler</span></font></div><div><font color="#000000" face="Open Sans, Verdana, Geneva, DejaVu Sans, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14px;font-weight:400;line-height:20px">WildWest Institute</span></font></div><div><font color="#000000" face="Open Sans, Verdana, Geneva, DejaVu Sans, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14px;line-height:20px"><br></span></font></div><h1 class="" style="color:rgb(33,34,33);font-family:'Roboto Slab',Arial,Helvetica,'Nimbus Sans L',sans-serif;font-size:38px;line-height:48px;background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;font-weight:400">Over 260 Scientists Urge Senate: Don’t Pass Post-Fire Logging Bills</h1><div class="" style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Open Sans',Verdana,Geneva,'DejaVu Sans',sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:20px"><p style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 20px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none">September 24, 2015 Big Bear City<em style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none">, California</em>—Over <a href="http://johnmuirproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Final2015ScientistLetterOpposingLoggingBills.pdf" target="_blank" style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;font-weight:bold;font-size:15px;font-family:'Open Sans',Arial,Helvetica,'Nimbus Sans L',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,145,221);text-decoration:none">260 scientists sent a letter to the U.S. Senate and President Obama</a> urging them to oppose two public lands logging bills, being promoted by the timber industry and their supporters in Congress, which the scientists say would be very destructive to forest ecosystems and wildlife on National Forests and other federal public forestlands. <strong style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none"><em style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none">The bills, HR 2647 and S 1691, will not improve forest health, reduce fire risks or protect communities</em></strong> by promoting widespread logging of ecologically rich post-fire “snag forest” and older forest in mostly remote areas of federal public forestlands.</p><p style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 20px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none">Instead they would <strong style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none">degrade or destroy tens of thousands of acres of forest habitat, <em style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none">eliminate most environmental analysis associated with this logging, prevent enforcement of environmental laws by the courts, and markedly reduce public participation in forest management decisions on public forests. </em></strong>The role of the timber industry in federal forest management would also unfairly increase under the deceptive guise of promoting decision-making by “collaborative” groups.</p><p style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 20px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none">The scientists urged Congress and the Administration to oppose the misguided bills, which “misrepresent scientific evidence,” and instead focus on “ways for the public to co-exist with fires burning safely in the backcountry.” They urged Senators and the President “to consider what the science is telling us: that post-fire habitats created by fire, including patches of severe fire, are ecological treasures rather than ecological catastrophes, and that post-fire logging does far more harm than good to public forests.”</p><p style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 20px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none">Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala, Chief Scientist of Geos Institute and co-leader of the letter, stated, “Federal fire policy needs an overhaul to reign in the out-of-control Forest Service fire fighting budget and focus it on saving fire-fighter lives and homes. This misguided legislation would throw gasoline on fires by promoting back-country logging that most often leaves behind logging slash as kindling for the next fire.”</p><p style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 20px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none">“Fire is not destroying our forests, rather, it is restoring these ecosystems and is creating outstanding wildlife habitat that is as biodiverse as old-growth forest, and even rarer,” said Dr. Chad Hanson, another lead author of the scientist letter. “This is why over 260 scientists from across the nation are urging Senators and the President to follow the science and oppose these logging bills,” he added.</p><p style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 20px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none">Both DellaSala and Hanson are co-editors of a new book: <a href="http://www.geosinstitute.org/press-room-sp/press-releases/1224-global-synthesis-of-large-wildland-fires-shows-they-are-ecologically-beneficial.html" style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;font-weight:bold;font-size:15px;font-family:'Open Sans',Arial,Helvetica,'Nimbus Sans L',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,145,221);text-decoration:none">“The Ecological Importance of Mixed-Severity Fires: Nature’s Phoenix” (Elsevier, Inc.)</a>. The book includes the latest science on the ecological benefits of large and intense fires and ways to coexist with fire.</p><p style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 20px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none"><strong style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none"><u style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none">Contact:</u></strong>  Dominick DellaSala, Ph.D., Chief Scientist, Geos Institute: (cell) 541-621-7223; (email) <a href="mailto:dominick@geosinstitute.org" style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;font-weight:bold;font-size:15px;font-family:'Open Sans',Arial,Helvetica,'Nimbus Sans L',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,145,221);text-decoration:none">dominick@geosinstitute.org</a></p><p style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 20px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none"><a href="mailto:dominick@geosinstitute.org" style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;font-weight:bold;font-size:15px;font-family:'Open Sans',Arial,Helvetica,'Nimbus Sans L',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,145,221);text-decoration:none"><br style=""></a>Chad Hanson, Ph.D., Research Ecologist, John Muir Project: (cell) 530-273-9290; (email) <a href="mailto:cthanson1@gmail.com" style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;font-weight:bold;font-size:15px;font-family:'Open Sans',Arial,Helvetica,'Nimbus Sans L',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,145,221);text-decoration:none">cthanson1@gmail.com</a></p><p style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 20px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none"><strong style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none">PLEASE JOIN THESE SCIENTISTS IN OPPOSING THESE BILLS:</strong>  <a href="http://www.senate.gov/general/contacting.htm" target="_blank" style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;font-weight:bold;font-size:15px;font-family:'Open Sans',Arial,Helvetica,'Nimbus Sans L',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,145,221);text-decoration:none">Call your Senator</a> (202) 224-3121 and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact" target="_blank" style="background-color:transparent;border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;font-weight:bold;font-size:15px;font-family:'Open Sans',Arial,Helvetica,'Nimbus Sans L',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,145,221);text-decoration:none">the White House</a> (202) 456-1111 today, or submit an email comment online at their website – with the risk of a government shutdown looming, bad bills like this can get wrapped into the spending bill without seeing the light of day – please make sure your Senators know that more logging and less oversight on public lands is not acceptable!</p></div></div>