169 



Testimony Before the House Resources Subcommittee on National 

 Parks. Forests and Lands 



On the Impact of the Rescissions Logging Rider 

 on the Northwest Forest Plan 



by Bonnie Phillips. Executive Director 

 Pilchuck Audubon Society 



July 23, 1996 



My name is Bonnie Phillips, and I am Execurive Director of the Pilchuck 

 Audubon Society. We are a chapter of the National Audubon Society, with 1500 

 members in Snohomish County, just north of Seattle, in Washington State. For 

 the past decade, protecting ancient forests has been a very high conservation 

 priority for ovir Audubon Chapter. 



In 1987, we were the first Chapter to begin a program called Adopt-a- 

 Forest. That program established a relationship vwth several of the Ranker 

 Districts on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. We be^an workme 

 cooperatively with the Districts in mapping old growth, in setting up workshops 

 to educate citizens on how the Forest Service works, and how atizens can get 

 involved. For the p<ist nine years, we have co-sponsored a variety of events 

 with the Forest Service, including an annual Festival of the River, <ind our Trees 

 for Life program, which h<»s provided over 100,000 excess trees from Forest 

 Service planting projects to our community wnthin the Puget Sound. Pilchuck 

 Audubon Society is a strong community organization and believes in cooperative 

 relatior^hips as the cornerstone of all of our programs. 



However, sometimes litigation has been necessary when we find federal 

 agencies in violation of environmental laws passed by Congress to protect our 

 natiiral resources. Violations of these laws, in our opinion, have unforturuitely 

 happened repeatedly over the past decade, and my Audubon chapter hcis been a 

 plaintiff in aU of the litieation since 1987 surroundmg the westside, or northern 

 spotted owl, forests in me Pacific Northwest. In most instances, the courts have 

 agreed with our position. In a 1991 ruling. Judge Dwyer concluded that "the 

 most recent violation of the National Forest Management Act exemplifies a 

 deliberate and systematic refusal by the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service to comply with the laws protecting wildlife." 



Litigation is not entered into easily, especially by community organizations 

 such as ours. We not only understand the kinds of polarization that nave been 

 occurring during the past ten years over natural resource issues, but we have 

 lived through the effects of this polarization in our personal lives. I have been 

 the target of angry outbursts at public meetings. I have also been the target in 

 the past of telephone death threats and newspaper articles which have called me 

 an eco-Nazi. I have become dose friends v«tn people on all sides of the issue, 

 have gotten to know intimately various views, and in short, my life has been 

 totally absorbed by the so-called timber wars for far too many years. 



