The Hill said it best.
This is not about what side of the party lines one chooses to promote. When you follow the money, you can see who benefits from the Trump Administration wiping out the public from the management and uses of public land.
“This administration’s recent decisions aren’t partisan — they’re a blatant strategy to ignore bipartisan support for public lands and hand them over to their oil and gas industry friends.”
Read the whole article here.
Conservation biologist Dr. Dominick DellaSala came to see us here in Santa Fe and observed with his 30+ years of research and expertise what’s happening in our forests.
It’s fair to say he was very concerned.
Listen to his story and his impressions of what “thinning” can and cannot do for our beloved city on the following two podcasts:
He spoke with the generous hosts of “Living on the Edge” on KSFR (Listen here) as well as KSFR News Director Tom Trowbridge (Listen here – scroll to the bottom of the page and click the play arrow next to the word “Listen”).
We entrust the Forest Service with the care of our planet – the mother from which we were all born. If you were going to hire someone to care for your mother or another precious woman in your family, what qualifications would you want this person to have?
According to a PBS report, there’s a long history of misogyny in the Forest Service making it a threatening place for women seeking to care for the earth to maintain a career (and their dignity).
See the whole story and watch the video here.
After a landslide in Oregon, Jim Furnish took an investigative, clinical look at how the forests are managed and logged. The landslide was the result of rushed, mismanaged logging road construction and usage. Salmon and spotted owls were greatly impacted by this enormous oversight and Furnish felt personally responsible.
In addition to needing a better plan for public access roads, Furnish shares something important he learned:
“The Forest Service shouldn’t operate in a vacuum. The public should have its say, and we can’t cut it out of its rightful role just because that would be quick, easy or politically expedient.”
Read the whole fascinating story here.
“This national forest runs major commercial timber sales like a cookie jar without a lid.” – Jeff Ruch
If you shake your head and wonder how anyone can cut trees in our current climate crisis, look for who benefits.
“Dru Fenster, a Forest Service spokessperson in Juneau, said the 9.2 million roadless acres on the Tongass include about 4.2 million acres of damp muskeg bogs, alpine lakes, steep-walled fjords, majestic mountains and tidewater glaciers. The remaining 5 million acres contain valuable old-growth trees, including Alaska yellow cedar, western red cedar, mountain hemlock and Sitka spruce, some as old as 1,000 years of age.
“Logging these mature stands could exacerbate climate change as well as cripple Southeast Alaska’s booming recreation and tourism industries, damage a world-class salmon fishing industry and threaten the survival of all kinds of wildlife, not just brown bears.”
Read the whole article here.
