Trees Not Cars (It's Arbor Day and Earth Day!)

=v= Arbor Day varies from state to state, due to climate. In California the weather's so nice it's held in the middle of March. But National Arbor Day is the last Friday in April, which is the same day as Critical Mass! Two great Earth-friendly events on the same day.

So everyone, go get some trees and plant 'em. Or get in touch with Friends of the Urban Forest and plant a bunch. Or get free (but non-native) trees from the Arbor Day Foundation and plant them where they're most needed, during the ride.

=v= Earth Day is usually April 22nd, though Earth Day events vary quite a bit as well (they're usually on weekends). It's usually a good idea for Critical Mass to show up at Earth Day events. It's a great place to pass out fliers, and you've got to keep an eye on those who are trying to "save the earth" by trying to sell "eco-friendly" cars and SUVs.

If you're looking for some sort of tree-hugging thing to do *on* Earth Day, see below.

[FROM THE NATIONAL FOREST PROTECTION ALLIANCE]

April 22 Call in Day and Action Items for Earth Day

Earth Day of Action: Protest against Bush Administration attempts to put timber industry profits ahead of forest protection and public input

On April 22, 2003, join with thousands on Earthday as we unite to defend our public forests and urge our decision makers to act to stop the Bush Administration's efforts to gut environmental protections, exclude citizens from decisions affecting public lands, and hand over our public lands to logging companies.

Call in Day: On April 22 please make a simple toll-free call to Congress to oppose efforts by the Bush Administration to gut critical environmental protections in order to turn our public forests over to logging companies. Tell Congress to keep public lands in public hands! Call the Congressional switchboard toll-free at 1-800/262-8333 (pin:0865). You will be asked the name of your Representative or Senators and transferred to the office. Ask your Representative and Senators to:

Oppose the Bush Administration's Healthy Forest Initiative and other efforts to gut Forest Protection Laws. The Bush Administration continues to claim that its Healthy Forests Initiative (HFI) will make our public lands more "healthy" or will help protect communities from wildfires. However, the HFI is nothing more than a green-washing campaign designed to give logging companies and other extractive industries free reign over public lands at the expense of true restoration, community protection and public participation. A sample of the Bush Administration anti-forest initiatives include:

• Allowing logging of up to 250 acres without environmental review or public involvement. Incredibly, the Bush administration claims that cutting down trees over an area the size of 83 football fields has no impact on the environment!
• Increasing logging of ancient, old-growth forests while reducing protections for salmon and ancient forest dependent species such as the Northern Spotted Owl by gutting critical protections in the Northwest Forest Plan.
• Reducing protections for threatened and endangered species when conducting "fuel reduction" logging projects.
• Blocking the implementation of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
• Eliminating critical wildlife and forest protections and public participation in forest-wide planning by making the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) regulations non-binding and voluntary.
• Exempting hazardous fuel reduction projects - including large logging projects that could target ancient forests or roadless areas - from environmental analysis and public review.