Quincy Library Group
PO Box 1749
Quincy, CA 95971

April 22, 1997

Mr. Louis Blumberg, The Wilderness Society
Mr. John Buckley, Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center
Mr. David Edelson, Natural Resources Defense Council
Mr. Craig Thomas, Friends Aware of Wildlife Needs
Ms. Barbara Boyle, Sierra Club
Mr. Steve Evans, Friends of the River

via fax to all

Dear Louis, John, David, Craig, Barbara, and Steve:

Several members of the Quincy Library Group have discussed your April 18th request to halt House Subcommittee mark-up of H.R. 858, the QLG bill. We regret to inform you that we do not feel we are close enough to an agreement with you to postpone mark-up, even if we could exert such control over Congress, which we cannot. In essence, your request is to grant your objective -- preventing legislative progress -- before you've agreed to grant ours. We have no agreement with you yet.

Instead, we prefer to continue to honor the requests made by the Subcommittee and by the Administration, that we work together with you to resolve issues with the bill, and to make the bill a true representation of the QLG forest management proposal.

At the same time, we see no reason why the bill should not be marked up as scheduled. While we've been meeting in Sacramento with you the last three weeks, we've also continued to talk with the House Resources Committee staff. We hope that after subcommittee mark-up, we will have a better legislative proposal as the base for any future discussions or negotiations.

Sincerely,

QLG Corresponding Secretaries

Linda L. Blum

Edward C. Murphy

cc: Undersecretary Jim Lyons
Senator Barbara Boxer
Senator Dianne Feinstein
Congressman Vic Fazio
Congressman Wally Herger
Congressman George Miller
Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth
Katie McGinty, Director, CEQ
Chief Mike Dombeck, U.S. Forest Service