The inauguration of President Obama could mean the end of an
eight-year assault on America's last pristine forests. We need
your help to make sure the Obama administration makes a new
commitment to protecting these remaining wildlands for
generations to come. Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/tongass/takeaction and
urge President Obama to take immediate action to preserve the
old growth wilderness of Alaska's Tongass National Forest.

In its final days, the Bush administration set in motion a plan
to start clearcutting the ancient, majestic trees of the
Tongass, our nation's largest intact rainforest.

Unless the Obama administration reverses this disastrous policy,
chainsaws will start cutting through the Tongass as early as
this spring, with logging in many of our nation's other pristine
forests likely to follow.

When the Roadless Area Conservation Rule was first adopted,
millions of Americans cheered its historic passing, which
protected 58.5 million acres of wild national forest lands from
development.

Over the past eight years, however, the Bush administration
repeatedly attempted to dismantle the Roadless Rule. It refused
to defend the rule in court, worked to rescind the rule one
state at a time, and even went so far as to "exempt" the Tongass
rainforest from roadless protections.

The Bush administration's final plan for the Tongass would
increase logging fivefold, and create logging roads through
priceless habitat for grizzly bears, thriving salmon runs, bald
eagles, and the elusive Alexander Archipelago wolf.

Please send a message to President Obama at
http://www.savebiogems.org/tongass/takeaction and urge him to
uphold the historic Roadless Rule for our country's remaining
pristine forests, including the Tongass rainforest.

Thank you for standing up to protect the Tongass National Forest
and the imperiled Alaskan wildlife this ancient forest sustains.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council