H.R. 488 currently has 28 cosponsors, and Audubon is working for even more supporters for this legislation. Biologists used the latest science to identify the most important habitats and corridors between habitats and ensure that they were properly connected to allow species to roam throughout them. H.R. 488 would help to maintain the integrity of this scientifically developed habitat system over time. Forest Product Certification Certification of forest practices and wood products is emerging as a promising tool for encouraging forestry that is ecologically sound, socially responsible, and economically viable. Growing awareness of certification and demand for certified wood are driving more and more forests to be certified and new certified wood products to appear in stores Roads and Forests Continued road-building in unprotected, unroaded wildlands is a major threat to some of the most important and rare wildlife habitat in the nation.
Many diverse species rely on the unique habitat characteristics provided by roadless lands.
Click here to link to a list of roadless areas across the country. Chip Mills 1.2 million acres of forest are cleared every year to feed the 140 chip mills operating in the Southeast. These mills are extremely efficient facilities which decimate any trees, branches or saplings greater than three inches in diameter to produce wood-chips for the paper and pulp industries. In Quincy, a small town in northern California, loggers, environmentalists, officials and townspeople met in the town library where they developed a plan to manage three neighboring national forests. They enacted their plan into law at the end of the 105th Congress, in late 1998.