Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation Resolution of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life Statement on Protecting the Ecological Integrity of Headwaters Forest Issued August 21, 1997 Excerpt for highlighting: “Our religious heritage calls on us to serve as protectors and defenders of God’s magnificent creations. It is our duty... to safeguard and weave together this patchwork of remnants... as our legacy for generations to come.” The American people have a solemn moral and religious obligation to safeguard the ecological integrity of the Headwaters Forest complex, which contains the last remaining unprotected virgin redwood groves in North America. This ecosystem is of vital importance to the protection and recovery of endangered and threatened creatures and is significant as a work of the Creator. Protecting the Headwaters Forest would assist in the preservation of the marbled murrelet, spotted owl, and coho salmon. The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) has called upon Pacific Lumber Company and the U.S. government to protect the ecological integrity of the Headwaters Forest complex by developing a conservation plan that would conform to the principles adopted by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) for the strengthening of habit protections. Such a plan should prohibit harvesting of any kind in areas designated as “critical habitat” for endangered species (including all remaining old growth redwood groves) and require that the plan be re-evaluated if scientific investigation reveals new information about the habitat. COEJL again urges Pacific Lumber Company to continue a full moratorium on all salvage logging operations in ancient redwood groves until the final resolution of Pacific Lumber’s Habitat Conservation Plan. The Jewish tradition calls upon us to serve as guardians of God’s creation. The preservation of species is a Jewish imperative. As the Nachmanides wrote: “Scripture does not permit the destruction of a species” (Commentary on Deuteronomy 22:6). The Psalmist teaches us that forests are to serve as homes for God’s animals: “The trees of the Eternal have their fill; the cedars of Lebanon which God has planted; where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the cypress trees are her house” (Psalm 104:16-17). Protecting the ecological integrity of the Headwaters Forest would prevent any possible violation of Bal Tashchit - Do not destroy . Based upon the prohibition in Deuteronomy against cutting down fruit trees in time of war, the rabbis developed the principle of Bal Tashchit , which forbids needless and wasteful destruction. Destruction of some of the few remaining ancient redwoods forests, unless necessary for some life-saving cause, may well be a violation of Bal Tashchit. The ten-year struggle to protect the Headwaters Forest exemplifies both the strengths and limitations of our nation’s laws regarding the protection of endangered species and habitats. The federal Endangered Species Act encodes into law a moral principle shared by the Jewish tradition and the vast majority of Americans alike: It is wrong for human beings to knowingly cause the extinction of a unique form of life. The Act sets a mandate for the federal government to take actions necessary to prevent extinction, including the protection of habitat that is critical to the survival and recovery of an endangered species. It has done much good, rescuing numerous species from the brink of extinction. COEJL and the JPCA strongly support the reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act. At the same time, in the case of the Headwaters Forest and many other ecosystems around the nation, the limitations of the Act have impeded its stated goals. The Endangered Species Act has enabled conservation advocates to successfully challenge the logging practices of Pacific Lumber Company in order to protect the remaining old growth groves held by Pacific Lumber. Since being taken over by MAXXAM, Pacific Lumber Company has failed to uphold the spirit of the Act, but rather has sought to maximize its profit through maximum logging. The limitations of the Endangered Species Act have enabled Pacific Lumber to take actions which have degraded habitat critical to the recovery of the marbled murrelet, spotted owl, and coho salmon. In February, 1997, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, representing 13 national agencies and 122 local Jewish public affairs agencies, called for improvements in the Endangered Species Act, including: stricter protections for areas designated as critical habitat; a preventative approach to habitat protection; a greater emphasis o species recovery; and additional incentives for habitat protection on private property. In July, 1997, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life endorsed the Endangered Species Recovery Act, introduced by Representative George Miller of California, as an effective remedy to the shortcomings of the current Endangered Species Act, which serves as this nation’s most effective ark for the protection of endangered creatures. Moved by both the deep concern of thousands of citizens about the protection of Headwaters Forest and our own long-standing convictions and policies, COEJL and the JPCA call upon the federal and state governments to develop a process whereby citizens of the region can actively participate in conservation plans for Pacific Lumber lands, including on-site monitoring of lumber operations. The biological inheritance of our nation belongs to all of us, and to future generations; conservation planning and monitoring should therefore include broad citizen participation. COEJL and the JPCA urge Pacific Lumber Company and all parties concerned about protection of the Headwaters Forest ecosystem to work to achieve a solution that both protects the forest ecosystem and provides for the workers and families dependent upon Pacific Lumber for their livelihood. Our religious heritage calls on us to serve as protectors and defenders of God’s magnificent creations. In a brief moment in the life of our planet, we have scythed all but a remnant of the ancient forests that once graced the land on which we established the United States. It is our duty — as people of faith, as parents, and as citizens of our nation, our world, and our biosphere — to safeguard and weave together this patchwork of remnants as best we can as our legacy for generations to come.