WASHINGTON _ Derek Volkart arrived in Washington on Friday with something peculiar in his truck: a 6-foot wide, 440-year-old tree stump left behind after federally sanctioned clear-cut logging in Oregon.
The “Shakespeare Tree” _ so named because the tree dates back to the 1500s _ will be displayed by environmental advocates on Capitol Hill this week to show what they believe will be happening often under President George W. Bush’s proposed “Healthy Forests” plan.
In a candidate debate in Albuquerque last week, the eight Democratic presidential hopefuls who took part raised environmental issues a dozen times, although not a single question about the environment was posed by moderators. The candidates struck environmental themes to criticize the Bush administration for insensitivity on trade and for refusing to work with other countries on the Kyoto treaty to combat global warming.
“Most Americans don’t want to believe it’s happening or they do not understand what the administration is doing. They give everything a pretty name and then they deny what is really happening,” said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club.
The industries benefiting from White House decisions are contributing money to the president’s re-election campaign.
But William Kovacs, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce vice president for environment and regulatory affairs, wondered if either side would have an impact given the deep division over environmental issues. “I don’t see him (Bush) gaining or losing. The corporate community is going to be with him. The environmentalists are against him. And the vast middle doesn’t have a very good grasp of these complex issues,” he said.

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