George,

If you read today's Washington Post you will see one more reason we need to elect a Democratic Governor in Virginia. The Bush Administration has undone protections provided under the Clinton Administration for some 40 million acres of national forests. In Virginia, over 394,000 acres are affected by the changes in Virginia located Washington and Thomas Jefferson National Forests The Bush Plan allows the Governors of the various states to appeal the U.S. Forest Plans. I have no difficulty predicting the dramatically different responses of Tim Kaine and Jerry Kilgore to this opportunity.

I was one of the few Virginians invited to Reddish Knob Overlook in October, 1999 to attend Bill Clinton's announcement of his executive order.

I was invited because I had been a mediator in both those Virginia National Forest's forest planning efforts. As President Clinton said on that occasion, "Today we launch one of the largest land preservation efforts in America's history to protect these pirceless, back-country lands... We know that road building is only a wedge to open up more forest-land to mining, logging and industrial uses.

Rich Collins (electronic mail, May 6, 2005)