Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation Vol. 1, Nr. 1 December, 1998 News Report from the National Chairman Dear friends of the Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation, Here is the first issue of what will become a regular quarterly NEWSLETTER to keep you abreast of progress in our forest campaign. Our program is starting to move forward with some vigor now. The following new features are happening now or will shortly be available: The first field representatives are signing up to bring a local dimension to the forest campaign. The initial areas where volunteers have stepped forward are in Northern Minnesota, Los Angeles, San Diego and West Virginia. Many more representatives are anticipated as our direct mail campaign gets started. An interim Handbook has been prepared by our campaign office in California to start field representatives in their forest preservation work. Our first mass mailings will go out in early February. Letters will introduce our program and invite participation in our campaign to end commercial cutting on public lands. On December 2nd, we co-sponsored a reforestation project headed by World Stewardship Institute’s biodiversity project. A seventh grade class replanted a spectrum of native plants on a conservation easement in rural Sonoma County, California. A series of RCFC replantings of clearcut forest areas are planned for 1999. In February we will open a web site on religion and responsibility for God’s forests. At the beginning of February, we will host a prayer breakfast in Washington, DC followed by a series of visits with U.S. Representatives and Senators. Our goal is to impress legislators with the moral dimension of forest conservation. Representatives of the Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation will discuss why the churches and synagogues of America are calling for the end to commercial cutting on public lands. A packet with our declaration, “Responsibility for God’s Forests,” will be delivered to each legislator to impress upon him or her that the moral and ethical dimensions of the forest issue have not yet been included in the discussion. This visit will serve as notice to the 106th Congress that the American people do not want their public lands traded for campaign contributions. The intent of this visit to Washington plus all of these programs is to emphasize that the moral and ethical dimensions of the forest issue have not yet been included in the discussion. Our visit to Washington will serve as notice to the members of the 106th Congress that the religious people of this country do not want their public lands traded for campaign contributions. God bless you at this approaching time of Christmas. I ask you to please remember the financial needs of our forest campaign in your Christmas giving. Direct checks to the Religious Campaign for Forests office at 409 Mendocino Avenue, Suite A, Santa Rosa, California 95401. Thank you and God bless you. Yours in service to our Lord’s great forests, Rev. Owen Owens