EC4WDA - Vermont-based Forest Watch Joins Center for Biological Diversity

[Guest]

Let me just preface this email with the fact that the Center for Biological Diversity is one of the major law suit happy anti-access groups out west. They are at the center of most of the lawsuits out there blocking use of public AND PRIVATE lands. They have money and now, they have a northeast office.
This means our job/fight just got harder. Any work we are doing on public lands will most assuredly come under their watch and will be shot at/shot down with every ounce of their energy and we may even see them attack our private properties...  This REALLY sucks!!

Read On, Get Angry, Take Action!

David Brill
Land Use Chair: East Coast 4WD Assoc.
V.Chair/Land Use Chr. Region D/Northeast of EC4WDA
President, Eastern 4 Wheelers
Tread Lightly! Master Trainer
Blue Ribbon Coalition
NAMRC
NOHVCC
SEMA/SAN
Brilliant Signs & Grafix
Guilford, CT

-----Original Message-----
From: coop
To: The Landuse Mail List
Sent: Sat, 5 Jan 2008 7:34 pm
Subject: [Landuse] Vermont-based Forest Watch Joins Center for Biological Diversity (oh yay)

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/press/forest-watch-01-02-2008.html

Contacts:  

Mollie Matteson, Center for Biological Diversity, (802) 434-2388,
mmatteson@biologicaldiversity.org

Jim Northup, Forest Watch, (802) 453-4063, jnorthup@forestwatch.org
 

*Vermont-based Forest Watch Joins Center for Biological Diversity to

Advocate for Northeast Public Lands and Species * * *
 

RICHMOND, /Vt./— National nonprofit the Center for Biological Diversity
and Forest Watch, a group based in Richmond, Vermont, today announced
their union to enhance the protection and restoration of the Northeast’s
public lands, wildlife habitat, and imperiled species.
 

Forest Watch, which was founded in 1994 as a watchdog of the Green
Mountain National Forest, will henceforth be known as the Northeast
office of the Center for Biological Diversity. The Northeast office will
focus on federal forest lands and wilderness, and will advocate for
greater protection of national wildlife refuges, state lands, and other
critical wildlife habitats, as well as stronger conservation measures
for the region’s declining plant and animal species.
 

“As a whole, the northeast United States is one of the most densely
populated regions on Earth, and yet we have here one of the best
opportunities to figure out how humans can live respectfully and
harmoniously alongside nature and thriving wild places,” said Mollie
Matteson, former deputy director of Forest Watch and now the Center’s
Northeast public lands advocate. “The story of this region is one of
ecological upheaval and loss, followed by the dramatic recovery of much
of our forests and native wildlife since the early 20th century. The
first half of that story is playing out all over the world today, and we
can show that it is possible to turn those losses around — to restore
wild nature, not just destroy it.
 

“However,” continued Matteson, “our gains have only been partial. With
the ongoing threats of air and water pollution, development and habitat
fragmentation, invasive species, and of course the looming specter of
climate change, we are likely to fall far short of realizing this
region’s potential to return to ecological health. In fact, without
dramatic, pro-active efforts, we are going to see our ecosystems
unraveling and the increasing loss of species — both those already rare
and species we now take for granted.”
 

The Center for Biological Diversity was founded in 1989 by a group of
biologists in the American Southwest concerned about the impacts of
Forest Service logging on old growth-dependent wildlife. The Center, now
with a membership of more than 40,000 nationwide, has gone on to
advocate for endangered species and habitats throughout the West, across
the country, and even throughout the world. The addition of the new
Vermont office, represents the realization of a long-standing aspiration
of the Center’s founders — particularly current policy director Peter
Galvin, who still has strong connections to that part of the world.
 

“The Center has wanted to open up an office in the Northeast for many
years,” said Galvin, who grew up in Massachusetts, attended Norwich
University, and co-founded the Center. “But we didn’t have the right set
of circumstances until now. When Forest Watch approached us last summer
with an offer to pass along their organizational resources in exchange
for carrying on the good work they’ve been doing for the last decade, it
seemed like a win-win strategy for both groups.”
 

At the top of the Center’s list of priorities for the next couple of
years is the future management of Vermont’s Nulhegan Basin, a division
of the Northeast Kingdom’s Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife
Refuge, which is currently developing its first-ever comprehensive
conservation plan. The Center also intends to focus on environmentally
damaging off-road motorized recreation on Northeast public lands, the
protection of national forest roadless areas, and more effective
conservation measures for imperiled plant and animal species.
 

Former Forest Watch executive director Jim Northup said: “Forest Watch
led the way on wilderness, reforming Forest Service land management, and
challenging the invasion of destructive and illegal all-terrain vehicles
on our public lands. It was good work, and also grueling at times. I’m
looking forward to being part of a positive, collaborative vision for
ecological restoration in this region, and the Center will certainly
help to implement that vision.”