Green Coalition & Forest Service Want To Hear From You

More than 200 million people a year visit the nation’s 155 national forests and grasslands. As the Obama administration sets out to determine the future for the 193-million-acre National Forest System, a coalition of conservation organizations is calling on people to make their voices heard. From March 29 to May 12, the U.S. Forest Service is hosting a series of roundtable discussions with citizens across the country to determine how the forests are managed for generations. The coalition is urging people to tell the Forest Service it should:

Preserve clean supplies of drinking water: Guarantee safe drinking water by protecting headwater sources, streams and rivers, and by restoring damaged watersheds.

Save America’s outdoor legacy: Employ long-term and restorative management practices to ensure that our national forests offer recreation and related economic opportunities.

Protect fish and wildlife: Sustain fish and wildlife populations and their habitats by protecting them from the changing conditions brought on by global warming and population growth.

Protect America’s wilderness: Study and assess National Forest System wildlands and recommend to Congress all lands that should be preserved as Wilderness.

Address climate change: Protect and restore carbon-rich forests including those managed under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule that provide vital safe havens for fish and wildlife over the next century.

Learn More: Visit the conservation groups’ Web site at Our Parks Our Future and the forest planning rule section of the Forest Service’s Web site for a complete schedule of roundtables and other information. (From: a joint press release by: Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, National Center for Conservation Science and Policy and The Wilderness Society.