Although the appeal was sent on congressional letterhead and paid for by taxpayers, Doolittle has refused to reveal who it was sent to or the costs of printing and mailing. Repeated calls to Doolittle's district office in Roseville and to press secretary Richard Robinson went unanswered. Doolittle is most often associated with his tenacious pursuit of an Auburn dam, a project despised by conservation groups and unpopular even with many of his own Republican colleagues. He has also been an outspoken critic of the Endangered Species Act. While Doolittle isn't advertising his agenda much these days, opponents expect him to roll out the master plan as soon as Bush is inaugurated.
Environmentalists say there's all sorts of mischief to be had.
For example, on national forest matters, nearly all rules are made by the executive branch of government. Bush might reverse executive orders that Clinton issued to create national monuments. The most recent, and controversial, was the Sequoia National Monument, which set aside some 300,000 acres of forest in the southern Sierras. Or the new administration might go after a Clinton-backed U.S Forest Service policy banning new roads on almost 50 million acres of national forest. The proposal is expected to be approved in mid-December.