More than 250 people are expected to rally in Cowley Park in Spokane this morning, part of a six-city effort to get support for reversing the anti-environmental tide in Washington, D.C.

Afterward, fliers are being distributed to 18,000 homes, complete with postcards for U.S. Sen. Patty Murray. “Murray has the unwanted position of being the champion on this,” said Trevor Fitzgibbon of the Inland Empire Public Lands Council.

“She needs to hear that she has support from Eastern Washington folks in standing up against the things that are coming down the pike,” he said.

Those things include attachments to congressional budget bills that allow more logging in Alaska and prevent the listing of endangered species. Environmentalists also are worried about an attempt to take authority away from Agricultural Undersecretary Jim Lyons, who has resisted attempts to suspend environmental laws in order to accelerate logging on national forests, said Samatha Mace of the Public Lands Council.

Cowley Park is at Sixth and Division.

Rallies also are being organized in the Oregon cities of Portland, Bend, Salem and Corvallis, and in Walla Walla and Pullman. Several local groups, including the Kettle Range Conservation Group, are involved.

, DataTimes