To: Brian Pasko, Executive Director, Larry Pennington, Public Affairs, and Oregon Chapter
Tell the Sierra Club to take a stand for Ecosystems
Dear Sierra Club Decision Marker,
I am writing to you as an Oregon voter concerned with conservation and with the upcoming election. As a group that has been called “the most influential environmental organization” the Sierra has a special responsibility to its constituents in deciding whom to endorse. I am asking you to withhold the endorsement of the Oregon chapter from Congressman Peter Defazio, Congressman Kurt Shrader, and Governor John Kitzhaber because their political actions are in conflict with “the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources” mentioned in your mission statement.
Last September, according to the Sierra Club web site, the Sierra Club joined other groups denouncing “recent proposals by Oregon representatives Peter DeFazio, Greg Walden and Kurt Schrader to privatize 1.5 million acres of publicly owned land in western Oregon. The strategies would, according to the group, turn the land over to a private logging ‘trust’ that would be managed under the Oregon Forest Practices Act.” Since then, that bill passed the House and is currently floating somewhere in the Senate under Sen. Ron Wyden’s stewardship.
Meanwhile, in Oregon, Governor John Kitzhaber has hosted his own timber harvest panel in a failed attempt to show parallel, unified support in Oregon for the bill at the federal level. He has also busied himself through the State Land Board with an attempt to liquidate the 90,000 acre Elliot State Forest. He successfully guided the sale of several parcels one of which has already resulted in litigation. With Democrats like Kithaber, Defazio, and Shrader, who needs Republicans?
I know it may be hard to withhold an expected endorsement from a candidate who has received it for many years, especially one with whom future cooperation is desired. At the moment, the cost of cooperation is too high for Oregon’s public forests, water, and soils. If you ask yourself whether you would endorse any of these three men were they running on a Republican ticket, the answer is clear. My hope is that loosing the endorsement of the Oregon Sierra Club will be a wake-up call to our elected officials who seem to forget in whose interests they were elected to serve.
Sincerely,
I am writing to you as an Oregon voter concerned with conservation and with the upcoming election. As a group that has been called “the most influential environmental organization” the Sierra has a special responsibility to its constituents in deciding whom to endorse. I am asking you to withhold the endorsement of the Oregon chapter from Congressman Peter Defazio, Congressman Kurt Shrader, and Governor John Kitzhaber because their political actions are in conflict with “the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources” mentioned in your mission statement.
Last September, according to the Sierra Club web site, the Sierra Club joined other groups denouncing “recent proposals by Oregon representatives Peter DeFazio, Greg Walden and Kurt Schrader to privatize 1.5 million acres of publicly owned land in western Oregon. The strategies would, according to the group, turn the land over to a private logging ‘trust’ that would be managed under the Oregon Forest Practices Act.” Since then, that bill passed the House and is currently floating somewhere in the Senate under Sen. Ron Wyden’s stewardship.
Meanwhile, in Oregon, Governor John Kitzhaber has hosted his own timber harvest panel in a failed attempt to show parallel, unified support in Oregon for the bill at the federal level. He has also busied himself through the State Land Board with an attempt to liquidate the 90,000 acre Elliot State Forest. He successfully guided the sale of several parcels one of which has already resulted in litigation. With Democrats like Kithaber, Defazio, and Shrader, who needs Republicans?
I know it may be hard to withhold an expected endorsement from a candidate who has received it for many years, especially one with whom future cooperation is desired. At the moment, the cost of cooperation is too high for Oregon’s public forests, water, and soils. If you ask yourself whether you would endorse any of these three men were they running on a Republican ticket, the answer is clear. My hope is that loosing the endorsement of the Oregon Sierra Club will be a wake-up call to our elected officials who seem to forget in whose interests they were elected to serve.
Sincerely,
Why is this important?
Our elected officials have been busy making laws that benefit big corporations and hurt the people of Oregon, our ecosystems, and our water quality and availability. Tell the Sierra Club not to co-sign this green wash by candidates running for re-election. Tell them not to endorse people who choose money over fairness and nature ...even when those people are Democrats.