“It would be a feather in the cap” of the logging industry if it stopped cutting down old-growth trees, Undersecretary of Agriculture Jim Lyons said earlier this week. Lyons, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, predicted the end of old-growth logging on private and public land within 10 years, in response to strong public sentiment. Meanwhile, with officials like Lyons still in place, enviros are mounting one last push to have Pres. Clinton designate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska as a national monument. A coalition of enviros is delivering more than 600,000 postcards to the White House today calling for Clinton to increase protections for the refuge, which George W. Bush has said he will open to oil and gas drilling.
