Alumna Sarah Bittleman, a natural
resource aide with Sen. Ron Wyden (D. – Ore.), a sponsor of the Healthy Forests
Bill recently signed by President George W. Bush, will give a talk titled
“Honing the Healthy Forest Bill” on Thursday, Jan. 15, at 7 p.m. in the F.W.
Olin Center Auditorium.
The lecture, free and open to the
public, is the first in this year's lecture series — “Environmental Science
and Public Policy” — sponsored by Union's Environmental Studies program.
Bittleman,
who graduated from Union in 1988 with a degree in
biology, has been instrumental in Sen. Wyden's leadership of the Healthy Forest
Bill, which seeks to reduce forest fires by streamlining the approval process
for projects to cut excess trees out of thick, overgrown forests or stands of
trees killed by insect infestation. Critics of the measure argue that it allows
the timber industry too much access to old-growth forests.